What has “Acting Now” Really Done for You?

They say that the only way to achieve your dreams and goals is by “acting now.” While I mostly agree with that and have even experienced that through hard work, you will be rewarded greatly, I also have to wonder why the thought of “acting now” makes so many of us sick to our stomach.

It’s common for you to feel nervous, or lack confidence when doing something new. Starting a new blog, releasing a product, or even publishing a new article. That nervousness and uneasiness can really have an impact on you as a worker, and can diminish that “acting now” feeling. If it’s not any of those, there are a plethora of other reasons. Probably the most common, however, is laziness. You know, that feeling where you just don’t feel like working because of bloggers crash.

Unfortunately for us, achieving goals and finding your success in blogging takes hard work, and time cannot be wasted. That’s why this idea of “acting now” is so powerful, because if you actually do the work and do it efficiently, you will just be taking another step to reaching your blogging dreams.

I can breakdown what I think a good strategy towards “acting now” successfully would be. It’s never smart to approach anything important blind. Have a game plan or some kind of idea on how you want to do something. Even if it’s broad, it’s better than knowing nothing.

Know what you want — Know everything that you want to do, and try to brainstorm ideas for the most important parts of your project(s). As long as you know what you’re working for, you have plenty of space to keep coming up with ideas along the way.
Work distraction free — Do whatever you have to do to stay motivated to complete your project. Don’t leave it half done, don’t start to do anything else, just focus on finishing what you started.
Complete, but don’t forget — One you have finished your project, leave it be and let it serve the purpose you wanted it to serve when you thought it up. But don’t forget about it when you move on to your next “big thing.” If it was an article, keep replying to comments. If it is a product, always look to improve it. Just don’t forget about it. This is often a very hard thing to keep up with, because once you’re done with something you want to just forget about it after pouring in hours of hard work into it. But, it’s important you find a way to keep what you have worked at alive.

But, just because you have a plan of how you want to do something, it doesn’t mean you’ll actually do it. It all depends on how you, as a unique individual hype yourself up for doing something that you actually get it done. A lot of us are burned out after just the planning stages! Inspiration and motivation are important for any good plan to work, and that’s why you need to have a constant source of both.

If you have trouble staying motivated, or you can’t find anything to be inspired about, I want you to think of a slogan for your work ethic. No, better yet, I want you to adopt the following words as your new slogan and before you settle in to work every day, think about its meaning and how the work you plan on doing today will tie into that meaning.

Work hard now and be hugely rewarded later

I know that the use of the word “later” is kind of a bummer, but the word “reward” should offset that and motivate you. These words work great for me, and maybe if you actually think of all of the little rewards you can/will experience, you will get working. It’s all about positive thinking.

What about later?

This article was a little hard to write, because I looked so far into the concept of “acting now,” that it made me think about doing the opposite — “acting later.” Because acting later is perceived to be such a terrible thing when compared to acting now, you have to wonder what things would be like if you just didn’t do them when you did.

It’s not so much looking back a step or two, but looking back at how you handled that impulse to get something done. I know I talked a lot about getting excited to do something and achieving your goals in this article, but some of the things we do with hopes of success can really result in failure. I know that first hand, and I have done many things on impulse with hopes of them working out, but really backfiring in my face. Yes, right here on Blogussion. Does anyone have an idea of what I am talking about?

Later isn’t always bad

If you have even a second of doubt about what you’re doing, STOP what you’re doing and THINK about what you’re doing

I have been blogging consistently for over a year now, and if there’s one thing I have learned it’s that if you have even a second of doubt about what you’re doing, STOP what you’re doing and THINK about what you’re doing. Everyone has doubts when they start anything new, like I said.

The second you doubt something, you have to either give in or break through. If you do not overcome your doubts immediately, you will not succeed in the long run. You will feel less and less confident about your project as you go on, and that can lead to a lot of things: errors, incompleteness, sloppiness, etc.

Take me and for example. Earlier in the month, I released my first ever product to the public. I have never made an attempt at earning an income from anything other than freelancing before, and I can tell you that I certainly had my doubts.

I went through the regular process we all go through when we come up with what we think is “the best idea ever:”

Come up with the idea
Accept it and start the planning process
Get very excited about it
Begin development
Reach important checkpoints towards completion
Have a “finished product”
Test everything out, get some opinions, fix anything that needs to be fixed
Go live

I think the above is a good, quick little overview of what the process of turning an idea into a reality would be. But, it’s not as straightforward as it looks.

Throughout that process, doubts will pop up. Usually they come out when the actual development of that idea starts. Whether it be criticism, or something doesn’t turn out the way you envisioned it — the doubts just keep coming. It’s crucial that you proceed with caution when you experience a blow to your confidence in the project.

Don’t turn every negative into a positive either. Some things that are bad were supposed to be bad so they could be improved. Some things you just need to do later so you can hone in on what’s important now.

If you feel confused because of some of the contradiction in this article, just know that you should have a balance of things you do now, and things you do later. You can’t do everything “now” because you will burn yourself out, and you can’t do everything “later” because you will never get anything done. Have a well balanced plan, and do what can’t be done later now and vice-versa.

To act or not?

After reading this article, a few things may be going through your mind. You may be confused, intrigued, in agreement or disagreement, or many other things. This idea, “acting now” is such a powerful thing that I want to discuss it with you guys in the comments section.

What is your take on acting now? What about later? How do you balance out the things you do now and the things you do later? And, what has acting now done for you in your blogging career?

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act now, blogging success, expanding your blog, hard work

Published: January 17, 2010
Filed in: Blogging With Meaning
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Article by Alex

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I'm the 17 year old blogger & designer behind Blogussion. I live in New Jersey (but root for the New England Patriots), and am a Junior in High School. You can check out my rarely updated personal(ish) blog, Asnio, or connect with me on Twitter.

Summary

The idea of "acting now" is an idea that hits us in a few different ways. Most see it as a motivator to get work done, but there are other ways that simple term can be looked at by someone. In this article, the idea of "acting now" on your blog is broken down and explained in a few different ways.
Key Points
- "Acting now" is often done on an impulse. It isn't smart to start working on a project without a plan, or at least a little brainstorming of what you want to achieve.
- Keep a thought like this in your head: "Work hard now and be hugely rewarded later." Have some sort of quote to get yourself motivated before you work.
- Some things do not need to be acted on immediately. It is important that you keep a balance between the tasks you need to achieve now and later.
- If you have even a second of doubt about what you’re doing, STOP what you’re doing and THINK about what you’re doing

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Jake | Web Journey January 17, 2010 at 11:45 pm

Alex, I have to thank you for writing this article. Everything in the Internet seems to be all about the now, the quick, and the easy. Having a step by step plan to harness the motivation of “now” while at the same time making plans is definitely the way to go.

For me personally, this article can be applied to starting new projects specifically websites. At first, I would rush into projects, my motivation would run out, and I would be like “woah, I don’t have enough time or I didn’t need to start this website.”

Now that I have more experience, I know to really think over whether I should do something now, later, or even at all. If I do do something now, I try to harness the motivation the best that I can. Thanks for a great and informative read.
Jake | Web Journey´s last blog ..30 Things to do After Publishing a Post

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What has “Acting Now” Really Done for You?

Work hard now and be hugely rewarded later

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Later isn’t always bad

To act or not?

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