How Much Action Should One Take?

A question that is frequently asked is how much action is required to achieve X. X being a number of things. Sometimes X is get a hot girl, make a living from my books, get in 10% body range, and so on and so forth. Obviously the answer is going to change based on a variety of factors the most important being the person asking. However with that being said there is a principle that generally all of those asking fail to understand that is very important to succeed in any endeavor.

Namely that if you aren’t getting the results that you want then you aren’t taking enough action. Meaning that if you’re not getting the business you want then you aren’t taking enough action to get that business. You’re not making enough cold calls, doing enough content marketing, or knocking on enough doors depending on what you do. Put simply if you are not getting the results that you want then you aren’t taking the right amount of action to get the results that you want. Many things can be solved by simply taking more action.

An Example From My Own Life

I’ll use this blog as an example. When I first started I reluctantly wrote a post a day. Well perhaps reluctantly isn’t the right word but it was something I had to force myself to do. I saw other bloggers who were getting by on one post a week and figured that is what I would eventually get to. However as I continued writing and learned more and more about the process I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t taking nearly enough action. If I wanted to be a serious force and have a major impact on the largest amount of readers possible then I was going to have to double down on what I was currently doing.

I thought I was working hard but I was only deluding myself. With both the books and the blog I knew I had to do more. One book isn’t going to make it, while we all like to think ours will be the number one seller the fact of the matter is the vast majority of authors who make their living through writing do so because they pump out book after book after book. The same can be said of bloggers or anyone else in any other industry. They just keep at it until they get what they want. Which generally requires as the very least a doubling of their efforts, if not more.

Here’s How Much Action To Take

Keep taking action until you get the results that you want. I’ll use blogging as an example because I’m familiar with it. Once a blog hits around 1,000 posts it begins to grow organically. Meaning even without your promotion or doing anything it’ll tend to keep growing on it’s own. So if you wanted to make it as a blogger and then focus on another business you’d have to commit to putting up at least 1,000 posts. This is just one example. And obviously there are many factors that play into how successful a blog is.

When I was growing my blog it was growing at a rate I wasn’t happy with (though overall it was very good). So I increased my output. From one post a day (which at one time I thought was a lot) to three posts a day. I thought of even increasing it more at times. The reason was that I was determined to get the results from my blog that I wanted. The same with my books. Having four books out was only doing so much for men. So I produced six more within a months time and then continued to put together more.

Make The Marketplace Respond

You can’t control the marketplace but what you can control is the amount of action that you take in the marketplace. Keeping taking your level of action higher and higher until you are finally getting the response that you want. Say you wanted to get to 1,000$ a week from book sales. Keep producing books until you get to that amount. Don’t produce one and then sit back and say “Alright hope I get there”. Keep taking action. Market that book and write ten more then you’ll start getting somewhere.

You’re underestimating what it takes to succeed. Which is fine everyone does at first. They want things to be easy but they aren’t. If they were easy everyone would be successful, rich, and living the life of their dreams. Double the amount of cold calling you are doing, triple the amount of doors you’re knocking one, quadruple the amount of books you read on your business and market. Until you get the response that you are looking for you are not taking enough action.

Summary

Alright with all this being said still always be sure to learn and grow more. Taking action is incredibly important as is gaining more and more knowledge. The two work synergistically to take you places that you only dreamed of before. Action without knowledge won’t get you far and knowledge without action won’t get you anywhere. Keep taking more and more action as you continue to learn more and more.

If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it.

-Charles Sledge

Charles Sledge