Photo Courtesy of egarc2 (flickr)
Bold action is the one remedy for really obnoxious problems. It gets you out of bed in the morning. It eliminates mediocrity. It produces success that you have been dreaming about. However, bold action requires risk taking, bravery, and a willingness to fail. Being willing to put yourself on the line for what you care about and believe in is one of the fundamental building blocks of bold action. In the last few months of my life I have experienced radical change and vast improvement in many areas, due in no small part to my own willingness to take bold action as often as possible. What is bold action? It’s doing the big stuff, the hard stuff, the stuff that you know will change your life but that you have put off due to any number of excuses. Bold action is difficult. It’s time consuming, expensive, risky, and may back fire on you for any number of reasons. Why would anyone want to take bold action? Because it get results every time. Seriously. Bold action will almost always produce a result that teaches you a grand lesson, creates enormous success, or at least provides the basis for a really great story to tell your grand kids someday.
Characteristics of Bold Action
What does bold action look like? Could you recognize bold action if you saw it happening? Could you see it in your own life or the lives of those around you? Do you take bold action often or does the thought of it make you a little nervous?
On a practical level, bold action could be quitting your job, starting a business, going back to school, completely changing your diet, training for a triathlon, planning a trip around the world, ending a bad relationship, swimming with sharks, or even admitting to yourself that your life is heading in the wrong direction and now is the time for change. Bold action doesn’t necessarily have to be so cliché. It’s personal. You decide what bold means to you. It could be as small as getting to work on time or as big as donating all your clothes to charity. Whatever bold action you choose you must be committed to it, have a plan to see it through, and make it a habit to always seek out new bold opportunities every day.
What Bold Action IS
- Bold Action is a valiant effort to do something for the first time
- Bold Action is striving for significant improvement in one or many areas of life
- Bold Action is daunting in the eyes of many and exudes great fear
- Bold Action is exciting, exhilarating, and worthy of your full attention
- Bold Action is life-altering and unforgettable
- Bold Action is powerful enough to stretch your abilities and your mind forever
- Bold Action is defining of who you are, how you live, and if you’re worth remembering
You know what to do, now go do it!
As you’ve read through this description there is no doubt you have thought of many areas in your life that need significant improvement or you’ve fantasized about accomplishing incredible feats. Either way, this is your chance to get moving! You now know what you want and want you need to work on to radically improve your entire life. Now go do it! Change careers, eat healthier, start that business, run that marathon, dump that worthless boyfriend or girlfriend, make a plan to change your life, and don’t wait until tomorrow to get started. The easiest way to get moving now is to make a decision immediately. Then write that decision down and follow it up with a simple step-by-step action plan for the next seven days. After that you should be able to make significant progress and create a firm long-term plan to guarantee your own success. Your biggest goals will only happen with steady focused progress over a long period of time. During that time you will grow immensely and change everything about your life. But this will only take place if you make the decision to grow NOW! Literally, your life will not change until you do. Don’t wait for someone else or a circumstance you can’t control. Find what you CAN control and make that your first action step.
Take a look at the recent action I have taken in my own life and the bold action I have planned for the future in the lists below. Then create your own list. Think back to what bold action you have taken in the last six months. Write down every major change you can think of that required you to make a bold decision and take bold action. Don’t include stuff that happened to you, only the stuff where you happened to it. Then begin to dream by including a list of every bold action you plan to take in the next few years. Your action steps in the next seven days should be the beginning of these long-term goals. When you look back at what you’ve accomplished it will seem very easy in hindsight. Remember that all daunting challenges seem difficult until you get started. Your success will only amplify as you embrace bold action as a characteristic of your own personality. Become the kind of person who makes extreme choices. Surprise your family and friends. Defy the status quo. Be different. Be bold. Break through your cluelessness and live the life you’ve always dreamed of!
Jeff’s Recent Bold Action
- Got my first dog, a pug named Benny
- Started my legit business: Blue Fire Truck Enterprises LLC
- Became an organic flexitarian (which means I eat mostly natural vegetarian food)
- Joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program
- Ran the Country Music Half Marathon for the first time
- Ordered my first iPhone
Jeff’s Bold Action Planned for the Near & Distant Future
- Run the Twin Cities Marathon – Oct 3rd, 2010
- Publish my 1st Book – Fall/Winter 2010
- Join Toastmasters – 2011
- Pay off all debt – 2011
- Become a raw vegan – Summer 2012
- Buy my first home in cash – 2014
- Become a leader in Personal & Professional Development – 2015
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Don’t forget to check out my new revolutionary eBook for conquering life after college!
The Clueless Graduate,
Jeff Sanders
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If becoming an “organic flexitarian” gets you out of bed in the morning then you are lost. If you consider buying an iphone to be a “bold action” then you have truly lost yourself in your own delusions. There is nothing “bold” about flying towards apple’s consumerist light bulb in the technological night like a yuppie moth. Can you recognize “bold” if you saw it happening? Yes, I could, and it wouldn’t be in the mile long line of hipsters at the apple store on launch day.
This entire exercise that you’ve engaged in is one of passive mediocrity. You’re turning the mundane fixtures in your life into something extraordinary to assuage the sting of humdrum that you wake up to every morning. There is nothing bold about deluding yourself into satisfaction with mediocrity.
This is the worst sort of drivel. Pandering to America’s dejected 20-somethings in order to peddle a self help book, now there is something bold. Boldly disgusting and boldly unethical.
For your readers’ consideration, I have an example of something I would consider a “bold action”:
Gary Brooks Faulkner, a construction worker who lived in Greeley, Colorado was dissatisfied with his station in life. Instead of deciding to become an “organic flexitarian” he buys a ticket to Islamabad. Armed with a pistol, a sword, and a pair of night vision goggles, Mr. Faulkner set off on a mission of vengeance and courage with the possibility of unfathomable rewards. He set off toward the Afghan/Pakistani border on a hunt for Osama bin Laden. After months of searching, Pakistani authorities apprehended Mr. Faulkner only 50 miles from the Afghan border. Upon his release back into the United States, he had only one request: he wanted his sword back.
That is bold.
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