It is always funny to me when people spend lots of time, energy, and resources to create the perfect plan… then never put in the effort it will take to implement it.

Movement = Action

To ensure that you are always moving forward toward your goals, you need to take action to make them happen.

The best career, sales, or account plan is useless if action isn’t taken. There can be no momentum – without movement and no movement until you (yes you) take action.

Action = Effort

What does do you need to do to take action? Put in effort – yes I’m talking about the evil idea that work ethic counts.

I’ve come to despise the saying “don’t work harder, work smarter”. I believe that phrase initially was said to people who were already working as hard as they could… needing to find better ways to work hard to move forward more quicly!

Now it is said as an excuse not to work hard in the 1st place. I’m here to remind you that it is going to take 10,000 hours of concerted effort to become an expert at what you do (according to Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers) and that is whatever you do.

“Practice Makes Permanent” ~ David Dolbear

This is a saying that my Taijiquan instructor always uses. Making sure that the effort we put in, is getting us to the result we are looking for. Let’s face it, if you use bad techniques (in sales or taijiquan) over and over and over again – you aren’t moving forward toward your goal, rather you’re creating bad habits that will hinder your success.

Look at your plan and consider – what effort will I put in today to take action on my plan and begin the forward movement I need to reach my goal?