Sage Solutions
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Sage Solutions
Taking Action: Featuring Hannah Sage
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David welcomes his wife, Hannah Sage, as the first guest on the Sage Solutions Podcast to discuss the topic of Taking Action.
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Welcome to the Sage Solutions podcast, where we talk about all things personal growth, personal development, and becoming your best self. My name is David Sage, and I'm a self-worth and confidence coach with Sage Coaching Solutions. Today we are going to be talking about the topic of action. Speaking of taking action, our goal with this podcast is to share free, helpful tools with you and anyone you know who is looking to improve their life. So take action and share this podcast with them. So last week we had an episode on courage, a fitting topic to be starting out with. Because courage is something that you do when you're afraid to do something. And for me, starting a podcast is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and have been a little scared to do it, so it just felt like the right first topic. But in my opinion, this is an even more important topic, possibly the most important topic we could talk about. Because frankly, without action, almost anything else we're talking about in this podcast doesn't really matter if you're not going to do anything with it ever. Action is what causes you to make progress, and you can't be courageous without taking action. It's basically in the definition. It's when you feel fear but do it anyways. Doing it is the action part of courage. So I'm also pretty excited because today's episode is the first time that we are having a guest who also happens to be my favorite person. Hannah, my wife.
SPEAKER_00Hi, cool cats and kittens. I'm Hannah, and I'm happy to be here.
SPEAKER_03Really?
SPEAKER_00Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03So Hannah and I met in culinary school years and years ago, where we never actually had a class together.
SPEAKER_01I think we had a class together.
SPEAKER_03Okay, we'd never had a class together.
SPEAKER_01We've proven this.
SPEAKER_03Regardless, despite me never having a class with her.
SPEAKER_01And debatable.
SPEAKER_03I basically knew at that time, just because we had a lot of mutual friends, that she was the most talented person that I went to culinary school with throughout my entire time there. We later reconnected through one of those mutual friends, hit it off, started dating, and now she's stuck with me. Because we're married.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Captain Obvious. I think they got that.
SPEAKER_03But when we were in culinary school for culinary management, she was going to school full-time while having a full-time job and a part-time job. Culinary school had lab classes. These were big long classes. This was not a small time commitment. The work ethic to be able to do something like that was insane. I'm having her on as a guest because she's one of the most action-oriented people that I know, and she just has a lot of experience around it, and I just felt like it would be a really helpful person to have on for this. So just a little bit more about Hannah. Um, she's been the executive chef at two different restaurants where she would regularly work up to 80 hours a week. She built a kitchen and the menu concept for Oakstone. It's a restaurant near Madison from the ground up as the opening chef. She's now an entrepreneur who has started and is currently running a successful cleaning company, and she did a lot of this all in the midst of losing her father to a very hard and drawn-out battle against cancer. Hannah is a very dedicated, loyal, caring, and hardworking individual. She puts herself out there and shows her acts of service as one of her main love languages for the people that she cares about, and they can feel it and they see her actions regularly. But when it comes to work, she is very hardworking, she's very action-focused, and she's built the stamina to sustain that crazy work ethic. And frankly, a lot of people know her as being good at a lot of things, and I think the taking action is a part of that.
SPEAKER_01So thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was very nice of you. Uh stop, stop it some more. Um, yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it kind of plays into a little bit of a workaholic syndrome, but hard work is definitely part of it. A bit of finding balance, but absolutely, and I've been full swing on either side of that balance, and I feel like now in my life I'm starting to find the middle ground of making sure that I am taking the time for us and our family and and still working and finding joy from working.
SPEAKER_03I can honestly say that I feel like you have definitely found a better balance with that, and it's like clear that you um sort of saw that and have worked on it over time, and um I definitely see and appreciate that. But uh today we're really trying to dig into some of the ways that you can give some extra insight for taking action. So if you could just give us a little more of your background and experiences related to it, I feel like a number of those could be really helpful for people.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So I was raised off of my grandparents' farm just adjacent to it. And so I was raised doing a lot of chores and farm field work. So a lot of walking through the fields on a hundred-degree day and picking up rocks and throwing it in the back of a tractor. It's not super fun when you're eight years old, nine years old. You'd rather be doing a lot of other things. However, um, I was always expected to do the same as the boys in my family, my brother and my cousins. And I actually think that ended up being a great lesson for me to learn. I was never really coddled, which helped with my work ethic quite a bit. So besides just growing up always working hard, I grew up with my dad being kind of like what I say is a natural MacGyver. For those of you who don't know, MacGyver was a popular television show in the 80s where he was like an agent of some sort, MacGyver, and he was always stuck in these predicaments of life or death or the bomb was about to go off, and all he had was a paper clip, a piece of gum, and maybe, I don't know, a squirt gun. It's like, okay, how am I gonna diffuse this bomb in 30 seconds with these items? So if my dad always problem solving, he always got a kick out of like, okay, how can I find a solution for this? I was raised watching him a lot and like experiencing the joy that he would get for finding a solution. And I feel like I find that same joy when I find a solution to a problem.
SPEAKER_03Well, and I can say you are good at it. It's clear that it rubbed off on you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, I take a into being an executive chef, like if someone doesn't show up for your shift, okay, I'm working the line tonight. I'm jumping in. You kind of always gotta roll with the punches. If an oven breaks down, okay, I'm going on YouTube and I'm trying to watch every tutorial and instructional video in digging through the manuals of how do I fix that oven before our Friday night rush. Right. I'm trying to do it's got to happen. Exactly. If I'm not gonna do it, who's going to? That's just the bottom line. I get a lot of joy from solving problems. It makes me feel good.
SPEAKER_03I have a question for you.
SPEAKER_01What's that?
SPEAKER_03When you say you have you get a lot of joy from solving problems, I wholeheartedly believe that. My question for you is does the size of the problem matter? Do you feel the same amount of joy from solving small problems as big problems, or does accomplishing harder things give you more joy?
SPEAKER_01That's a good question. Honestly, I think it's pretty varied. I think the bigger the dilemma that I'm solving, the more of a positive reaction I'm gonna have to that, the more joy I'm gonna feel. However, I find joy in like the tiniest little things. Like sometimes it's like, okay, how do I prop this certain cabinet open? Okay, what can I use around me? It's like the problem solving, okay, if I'm not gonna get this done because of this reason, this problem that's in place, okay, how am I gonna solve that problem to get that done?
SPEAKER_03So would you say that you almost have incorporated being a doer, being a MacGyver, being a problem solver into your sense of self?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. I take a lot of pride in it. Probably a little too much pride at times, but I really like being the problem solver and the one who tackles other people's problems as well as my own.
SPEAKER_03No, it makes sense. And I find a lot of times people are pretty driven by their sense of self. So it would make sense that you seeing yourself as a doer contributes to you being a doer. I've noticed that a lot of times in stressful situations, your immediate reaction is to snap into action, you know, to fix the problem to get it done. And that honestly saves our ass a lot.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and honestly, I'll chalk that up to uh I call it my ultimate laziness hack. Because the way that I see it is if I get this done as soon as absolutely possible, the sooner I can just relax. The more I can just enjoy my downtime later on. Because a lot of times when you're thinking about doing something, especially something that you like see as hard, even if it's something small and you're just like not wanting to do it, the longer you sit on it, the longer it's gonna take to actually do it. So I feel like, okay, you can ignore your problem, but then you're gonna be laying in bed at 10 o'clock at night thinking about, oh man, I didn't do that today. Okay, I guess I'll do it tomorrow. And then you tell yourself that every single day. Whereas if I got it done, I can lay in bed happy as a clam, I can read, I can do whatever I want to do and not feel that guilt or that tension sitting on my shoulders.
SPEAKER_03So you're saying by not procrastinating and delaying your gratification of not wanting to be lazy now, you actually are allowing yourself to be lazier later.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I'm optimizing my chill time.
SPEAKER_03Hey, makes sense. Why be worrying about stuff during your chill time when you can get it done, get it accomplished, feel good about it, and not have to worry about it later when you do get to chill. Makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_01Totally. Yeah, I feel like a lot of times when there's something really important that we want to get done, we think about it too much and we're like, okay, I really need to set aside the time to get that done. But I would say probably 75% of the time for most individuals, you're not actually setting aside that time. You are just sticking in a back storage unit in your brain, thinking, oh, I gotta do that eventually. And it's gonna weigh on you. I feel like as soon as you decide that you're gonna do something, whether you take action right then, action might be not quite doing it yet, but action might be getting it on your calendar. Setting aside a timer on your phone, okay, at eight o'clock tonight, I have to spend 10 minutes to get it done. And actually doing it. So, like, okay, maybe you're not gonna do it right then, but making sure you're going to.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a really good point because you may not be in a position to take action. And it doesn't really make sense to beat yourself up or shame you. If you're in the middle of the grocery store, you obviously can't vacuum your house.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03You know, you might it the thought might occur to you then, but it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to be like, right, I need to take action now, and you're what? You're gonna drop your groceries and sprint home?
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_03So you can take smaller actions, is what you're getting at. With the intention of having those smaller actions move you towards taking the action you really need to take when you're able to.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03I have one more question before we we kind of really dig into it. Is is there anything else you wanted to cover from like your experiences or your background?
SPEAKER_01Um, yeah, I would say that a lot of times, because I tend to be such a doer, for a very long time I kind of would mix up being busy with being productive. So I would say, okay, I'm I'm just so busy. And I would almost equate that as being productive, but being busy in my mind tends to give me more stress and anxiety. I don't actually get the fulfillment. I'm just busy. I'm running around from one thing to the next thing. And it's like this frazzled, just trying to survive. When I realized that the difference between busy and productive, I was able to take some enjoyment and fulfillment from when I actually get things done. Because generally, when you're busy, you just jump to the next thing, you don't actually enjoy and think about, okay, I did this pat on the back.
SPEAKER_03No, that's a it's a great point. That starts to get a little bit into the nuance of action of like we're not just saying take any action at all.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03It's not that you shouldn't think about things, you still should be taking the action that is actually the most helpful, not just running in place.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03So that's it's a really good distinction that not all action is created equal.
SPEAKER_01Right. Another thing is I feel like I really focused on a lot of my encouraging self-talk. So like shaming myself into how I should get that done. A lot of times when I ruminate on shame, I tend to not actually do it. That almost gets in the way of me being a doer. However, when I jump into more of the encouragement self-talk from a place of love, it's more like I pause a moment. Okay, come on, Hannah. You've got this. You can do this. This is easy. If you tell yourself that stuff, you'll truly believe it.
SPEAKER_03I love that. It's really powerful, and a lot of people don't think about that. So if you could just elaborate, that would be fantastic.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Okay, so say I'm driving around in my dirty car. I know I need to clean it. I know there's clutter in there, things need to be taken into the house, probably run a vacuum through it. The more I shame myself and talk to me, like, oh man, you're such a slob, Hannah. Like, how do you let it get this bad? A lot more of the times I'm gonna sink myself into a pit of despair. Generally, it takes me 10 minutes to get that done. Being able to just say, hey, like you got this, let's do this. It won't take you that long. And then being able to say, when you're done with that, hey, I'm proud of you for getting that done. Saying you're proud of yourself, there's a whole nother level to it than someone else telling you that they're proud of you. Because you can't really lie to yourself as much.
SPEAKER_03No, because you'll feel it.
SPEAKER_01It's not the same success.
SPEAKER_03Man, I would love to really dig in on that topic. We will probably save shame and self-compassion for a different episode, but I am very glad that you touched on how it's related. So, my question for you: based on all of your different experiences and background and just being kind of a doer, what is the most helpful piece of advice you can give our audience here to tell them how they can take action?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I broke down some different life lessons that I've learned. And I broke it down into seven steps to take action. So, one, stop waiting until the conditions are perfect. There's no perfect time, there's only the present time. There's an ancient Chinese proverb that I really like, or it goes by the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
SPEAKER_03I love that. You came prepared.
SPEAKER_01This is what I do.
SPEAKER_03No, but that is a that is a really that's a great quote.
SPEAKER_01It really is. Uh number two, stop. Get up and do it. In order to turn yourself into a doer. So a doer is someone who has an idea and moves forward with it immediately. If you pause and wait, we lose the will to move forward, and we allow the doubt to creep into our minds. So make yourself a doer. Number three, stop overthinking things. I'm a chronic overthinker. I always overthink a lot of things. So I've learned that it's best to just not overthink. When we overthink things, we start to get paralysis of analysis, and we won't be able to move forward. It stops us dead in our tracks. Number four, take continuous action. Keep the momentum going by doing something productive related to your idea every day. Whether that be just taking 10 minutes out of your day to work on that side project that you've always been wanting to get going on. The way that I see it is small tasks will add up quickly and help you build up the confidence by seeing your achievements every day. And that kind of comes into the self-talk of like, okay, you got this, you're good. Number five, use your action to overcome fear. Once you get started, the fear and anxiety will disappear because you're focused on the action. And the action can be the cure for our fear. Uh number six, focus on the present. So back to that Chinese proverb: the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now. Yeah, we'd really like a tree, wouldn't we? However, if we don't actually plant a tree, in 20 years we're not going to have a tree. But not everybody's going to want to plant a tree. You can take this tree metaphor and switch it around to other aspects of your life, such as exercise. Yes, the best time to have started exercising or started training for that marathon that you dream of doing would have been a year ago. But the past is past, like that's gone. The second best time, which now makes it the best time, is right now. So do it now. Seven, eliminate the distractions. With social media and everything, we live in a world of increasing noise. The noise causes distractions that prevent us from taking action. And they slow us down. Maybe not even social media, everybody has their own coping, procrastination technique, if you say. So whether that be Reddit or maybe too much TV video games, even if it seems like it's a good thing, but if you're using it for procrastinating, it's probably not worth doing at that time. So set it aside. You know that you can always come back to that in the future, but set yourself a little bit of time aside to work on your true calling, your true action. So those are kind of like my seven steps to start learning how to take action.
SPEAKER_03Wow. That was phenomenal. I knew I married you for a reason.
SPEAKER_01Aw thinks.
SPEAKER_03That's not the only reason. Just to be clear. Gotta set the record straight. It's not even close.
SPEAKER_01It's the main one.
SPEAKER_03But it's no, hey, it's a good one. Let's just take a second. Can you restate those steps one through seven?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03I love that you went into them and broke them down, which is fantastic. But just because I feel like you got a lot of really good information across in a short period of time. Just so that anyone listening who feels like it would be helpful can take a second to write them. Because these are useful, actionable things, and it would be super helpful to re-list them out.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So seven steps. First step, stop waiting until the conditions are perfect. Step two, stop. Get up and do it. Step three, stop overthinking things. Step four, take continuous action. Step five, use your action to overcome your fear. Step six, focus on the present. And step seven, eliminate the distractions.
SPEAKER_03So I kind of wanted to touch on six, because I think the undertone of it, the unstated part, is that in focusing on the present, you're not worrying about the future or stressing about the past.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So when you focus on the present, I feel like a lot of times with anxiety, you are focusing on any other time but the present. You're focusing on the past and how you wish you would have done it differently. You're focusing on the future and how you need to get this done in order for the future to work out. So by focusing on the present, you're taking away some of those distractions and some of that anxiety and stress of, okay, I have to get this done now, or else the future doesn't matter. Getting rid of that kind of narrative in your head and switching over to, okay, I can do this now. This is something that I can do now. Just makes it a lot easier.
SPEAKER_03I totally agree. Because we often don't think about that aspect of it. And I think you've outlined these seven steps in a way that's that's really useful. So thank you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you. So, with all of your experience as a life coach and helping people take action, and you've done a lot of research into this particular uh topic, what are some of the thoughts and insights that you have on taking action?
SPEAKER_03I touched on it a little bit at the beginning of the episode, but In my opinion, action is one of the most important things that anyone can work on. One of my mentors used to say, action cures everything. Now, they weren't wrong. It might be a little bit of a black and white statement, but the reality behind it is that in most situations, almost all situations, there is an action that you can take that will fix or make the situation better. Doing nothing is almost never the right answer. So I really do try and live by whenever I'm in a predicament, action cures everything. You kind of said earlier that action cures fear. When in doubt, take action. You will almost always have made the better choice by doing it that way. And it just takes a lot of the stress out of it. It just allows you to do it. You won't have that paralysis by analysis. Waiting until you're motivated to take action is a recipe for not taking action. As Nike would say, just do it. Many people, myself included, believe in the law of attraction. The law of attraction is about thinking about things and bringing them into your life, or almost manifesting them through keeping them on your frame of mind. They draw those things into your life. But let me be very clear. There is no law of attraction without action. It will not happen. If you do nothing, nothing will come into your life. You are not putting yourself in a situation where things can come into your life. You have to be taking actions to put yourself in those positions. You have to be doing things that puts you near those things. Action is literally in the spelling of attraction. That is how linked it is. And I think a lot of people use it as an excuse to do nothing by saying, well, I am doing something. I'm thinking about it. I'm manifesting it. I'm bringing it into my life. Other people avoid action by blaming everything and everyone else for why they're not somewhere. Being a victim is a really, really easy way that a lot of people use to not take action. It's much easier to blame things outside of your control for why you're not there instead of taking personal responsibility for getting yourself there. It takes a lot more effort to do that. And many people do this without realizing they're doing it. Action is one of those things that has a million ways that people don't take it, whether it's overthinking, making excuses, blaming other things, whether it's getting paralyzed by fear. It is one of the hardest topics, but it is one of the most important. One of my favorite quotes around action is actually do or do not. There is no try. It's Master Yoda. What he means is if you say, I'm going to try, you likely mean, I don't think I can do it, but I'll at least give it a shot. That is a terrible attitude to take for it. You are either doing by going out and doing it with everything that you have, or you're not. You're either committing to doing it, you may not be successful, but you took action, or you're not. And this is why I think it's such an important thing. If I couldn't get a client to take action, we would never get anywhere. The world wouldn't work without action.
SPEAKER_01Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're fairly good at impressions.
SPEAKER_00Can we hear Yoda?
SPEAKER_03I think that is a gross exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00Please let me hear Yoda.
SPEAKER_03Okay, this might be bad. Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it. For the record, this isn't one of the ones I can do, but I'll try. Mmm! Take action, you must! Do it! You will!
SPEAKER_00Gosh. You know that wasn't half bad.
SPEAKER_03Alrighty then. Well, thanks for coming to our final episode.
SPEAKER_01Uh-huh. But he is a wise little guy. So that one quote. Was it the do or do not, there is no try?
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So with that, the way that I see it is even if you try and you don't technically succeed, at least you can say that you tried. You get the peace of mind? Yeah, the peace of mind of knowing that you did gave it your all. And that can come into a little bit of that, like, yeah, you got this. You you tried. And pat on the back kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03And I think we underestimate how good it feels to just try. The funny thing is that he says there is no try. And we're saying to try, but really what we mean is you are doing the action, right? You did it. That was the goal. The goal was to take action, not to be perfect and get everything right all of the time. That's totally unrealistic.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03So to hold yourself to that expectation all of the time is just ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01Well, how often do you hear or you tell yourself, I'm trying my best, but in reality, you know you're not trying your best. You hear it all the time. So I feel like that comes up a lot.
SPEAKER_03Or, hey, get that report to me by Monday, and then they say, I'll try. How likely is that report getting there by Monday? Right. A lot of times people don't actually mean it when they say try. It's not that try is that bad.
SPEAKER_01No, there's just it doesn't have as much pressure behind it as do or do not.
SPEAKER_03It also gives people an out, which a lot of times means that they won't.
SPEAKER_01Right. Mm-hmm. No, that's a really good point. And then also by giving a way out, you're almost giving yourself the option to procrastinate. To not do it.
SPEAKER_03This reminds me of a quote by Dr. Aziz Ghazipura in his book Extraordinary Confidence, where he says, Your mind will say whatever it needs to. It will tell whatever lie to prevent you from taking action. Because it just wants to protect you from anything, and it deems almost everything as scary.
SPEAKER_01Right. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03So let's actually talk a little bit about some strategies that people can use. One of the most popular, and I know we both really love this one, is the five-second rule by Mel Robbins.
SPEAKER_00I love her.
SPEAKER_03No, she is pretty great. I personally often use a variation of it that would be the three-second rule, just because a lot of times I want to give myself even less time to uh possibly talk myself out of something. Actually, you know what? I'm gonna let you touch on this one. I feel like you've even consumed more of it than I have. So I'm gonna hand you the baton on this one.
SPEAKER_01Alright. Yeah, so I'm a Mel Robbins enthusiast.
SPEAKER_03I love her.
SPEAKER_01Um I have listened to her podcast up to this day, I don't even know how many episodes, twice through. Her whole five-second rule is that when you are gonna do something and you're having a hard time getting it done, to count five, four, three, two, one, and she goes and does it. And I found that when I was switching over from working late nights in the restaurant industry to switching over to having to work early mornings in the cleaning world, I had a really hard time waking up. I remember you you remember this. It was like I would have like seven or eight alarms going.
SPEAKER_03You know the people by the way, people is very bad for you. Just do the one alarm, you're messing with your whole energy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. You say that, but it's only scientifically proven. I know. In all reality though. Um, but I would have these seven or eight alarms going, and they'd be going every five minutes, and it was bad. And I was not actually getting any sleep in that last 30 minutes. I was just making myself miserable and dreading getting out of bed. But when I switched over to using Mel Robin's five-second rock, my alarm would go off, I would lay in bed, okay, five, four, three, two, one, and get out of bed. It's the first thing you gotta do.
SPEAKER_03And correct me if I'm wrong, but she talks about like literally picturing a rocket launching and launching yourself out of bed.
SPEAKER_01Like giving yourself a jump step.
SPEAKER_03It's like at that one, you have to be physically moving in some way to do it. It gives you that forward momentum to do it. And there's some science behind it in that the uh the whole thing is you count back for a reason, not just because of the rocket launch visualization, but because your brain struggles to talk you out of something while counting backwards. It's much harder to not that it's actually that hard, but it's harder to count backwards than it is forwards.
SPEAKER_01It gives your brain something to do instead of complaining and whining about how you wish you could stay relaxed for the rest of the morning, but it's like, well, that's not the reality of the situation. You gotta get up, you gotta do it.
SPEAKER_03Well, and it's a great tool for getting yourself to do it and delaying that gratification. There's actually another tool that I occasionally use because for me, which one of these I use is very dependent on what feels right in the moment, like what feels like it's gonna have a better success. And pardon my language on this one, but every once in a while when I haven't had the thought to do the five or three-second rule, and I've already been starting to have that fear go off in my head, have those limiting beliefs pop up. My brain basically telling me any reason it can possibly grasp at straws to not do something, a lot of times I'll literally take a breath, and then in my head I'll just say, fuck it, and then I'll do it.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. That's good.
SPEAKER_03And something about the fact that it is a swear and the fact that it's it's motivating. It it just makes you stop caring so much about what your brain is telling you, and it feels kind of fun and freeing.
SPEAKER_01Also, it feels a little badass.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't it's it's it sounds corny, but it's just one of those things that like when you do it, you just take that breath and you do it, and it just feels good.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. No, that was good.
SPEAKER_03So I want to talk about a realization that it took me quite a while to have. And that was that there were times where I wasn't taking action just because I didn't want to fail. But then one day it hit me. Avoiding failure is avoiding success. Because the easiest way to avoid failure is to not take action. But do you care more about failing? How how bad is failing really? So you didn't accomplish it? If you didn't do it, you didn't accomplish it anyways. That's automatically.
SPEAKER_01You're never going to.
SPEAKER_03But you can't succeed if you don't do it. If you don't put yourself out there and take that action. People will use ready, fire, aim, which really gets across that you just figure out what you need to do and then you do it, and then as you're doing it, you sort of steer yourself in the right direction as opposed to getting yourself ready and then thinking about it a bunch and then never actually firing. Taking actions is a lot like the physical science of friction. There's static friction, which is the friction on an object not in motion, and there's kinetic friction, which is the friction on an object in motion. Friction for an object is greater when it's not moving than when it's already in motion. Action works the same way. It is harder to start taking action if you're not moving or doing anything. Even if you start taking a tiny little action, that has a domino effect that reduces the friction that you are going to feel to keep taking action. Sometimes all you have to do is start, take that little action, and then it'll feel so much easier to just keep going. One of the biggest ways to think about it, and I feel like you touched on it, but I can't quite remember, was that taking action is like a muscle. You have to build it, you have to maintain it. The more that you do it, the more that you push yourself when you're doing it, the more load that you give it in total, the more it's going to grow and get stronger and be easier. And if you don't use it for a while, you're going to start to lose some mass and strength in that muscle. But once you've built it up, it's easier to get back to where you were than to build it in the first place. It is like a muscle. It's one of those things that it's about doing it regularly for the consistency, and you will continue to get better at it. Consistent action is required for confidence, it's required to build courage, it's required for most things.
SPEAKER_01That's good. Something that I take into account is that like, okay, I really want to be willing to give compliments, willing to help people around me feel better because that's just something that I love to do. So one thing that like taking action and working out that action muscle is that I try to give compliments everywhere I go. If I see something that I like about someone, like maybe it could be an outfit or a girl's nails, something just really simple. I make sure I tell them. Because right when someone gets a compliment, you light up. You're happy, you know, you you are glad that someone noticed.
SPEAKER_03For the record, she is very good at this. She does this all the time. She's not like she's not just BSing this.
SPEAKER_01It's my favorite.
SPEAKER_03This is a thing that she does all the time, and I respect her so much for doing it. It's honestly something I should get better at for just, I don't know, shirts that have cool designs for guys and stuff. It brings a light to people's day, and I always see when she does it, and it's just awesome.
SPEAKER_01You gotta use it or you're gonna lose it.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna go into this in a future one, but I really do believe most things that we're going to talk about function like a muscle. And if you adopt that mindset for all these different things, you'll get so much better at it because you'll know how to actually build them. But I think we should probably get into some of the nuances about this. We've been very like, action, action, take action all the time. And honestly, is pretty good advice, but there is a little bit of nuance here, and we should really touch on it. The first thing I kind of wanted to talk about is that jumping off a bridge is an action. Action is such a broad term that it makes it sound like I'm saying if you do anything, it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03Right. I actually mean actions that you know you should be doing, actions for good, actions to help people, actions to help you, actions for your job to accomplish things, whatever it ends up being. Which is where I kind of wanted to talk about the difference between actions based on impulse versus actions based on your gut telling you you should do it.
SPEAKER_00No, it's good.
SPEAKER_03Because a lot of times I want that ice cream, and buying that ice cream is an action. But that doesn't mean I should do that every time I see ice cream. That's probably a pretty bad action to take. So when you feel like you should take action, if it's because of an impulse, cross-check with your gut if it's actually what you feel you should be doing, not just what you want in that moment.
SPEAKER_01Right. Mm-hmm. No, that's really good. As someone who can be very impulsive, along with being a doer, I totally get that. And there is a difference.
SPEAKER_03You touched on one of the other things earlier, which was about busy work versus production. Yes, and I think that's one of the other things. A lot of times people are taking lots of actions that aren't getting anywhere, running in place.
SPEAKER_01Um, no, I definitely say that would be kind of a downside of saying, okay, I gotta take action, gotta take action. Okay, are you actually taking action or are you just busy?
SPEAKER_03Or even worse, are you just trying to look busy?
SPEAKER_01Ooh, yeah, I do that.
SPEAKER_03Because especially in office jobs, there were a lot of times when I was working at an office job where it was very clear that people were just trying to look busy and not actually doing things that mattered.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03So that they wouldn't get yelled at for not doing stuff.
SPEAKER_01No, that's good. I think also with being a doer and kind of like it's something that I'm generally pretty good at, I think there is like a downside that comes with that. Sometimes I'll jump into doing something, but I don't actually communicate to you what I'm trying to get done. So then I get frustrated with you that you're not at my speed, but I never told you what I was doing in the first place. I just started doing it. So it's kind of like a loophole, like a catch 22 there. Like I so I feel like if you are trying to do it and you are gonna be doing it with someone, just make sure you're communicating. Or else you're gonna leave the other person in the dust and things are gonna get confusing and frustrating.
SPEAKER_03If you're clearly not being held back by your thoughts about taking an action, right? Think about things. Make good decisions. Use logic. I'm not saying don't think. I'm saying don't prevent thinking from allowing you to do what you know you need to do. You should be trying to do things in smart, wise, educated, knowledgeable, whatever you want to call it, ways. That's kind of where that ready-fire aim. You still need the aim. You still want to be taking actions based on good thoughts with a good strategy to actually accomplish the goals that you're trying to accomplish.
SPEAKER_01Right. Also, like I've kind of found that it's easier to generate ideas and actions for someone else. It's kind of the whole, I don't see the plank in my eye, but I see the speck in yours. So a lot of times by communicating and opening up with someone, you're giving them the chance to show you what actions that you can take to get to your goal. Sometimes it's actions that you aren't even aware of because you haven't seen it through someone else's lens. And vice versa, you could be helping someone else find tangible actions for their goals. It's kind of like a piggybacking off of each other. However, with being a doer, I find it I'm very bad at asking for help. And so that's something that I try to work on, but I gotta ask a little bit more often.
SPEAKER_03And it's funny because it almost feels like asking for help is showing a sign of weakness as a doer, right? Right. Like I should be self-sufficient all the time. I should only have to rely on myself. But the reality is that's a pretty inefficient way of living.
SPEAKER_01Oh no, it's a lonely way to live.
SPEAKER_03Well, that too. So we just kind of wanted to show that there are definitely some shades of gray to this, despite this being one of the most important topics. It's not that black and white. There are things to think about. Don't just put your head down and run at a wall that's made of steel. Use common sense, use some logic, but do what you know you need to do.
SPEAKER_01Now, as we're wrapping up here, David, I wanted to ask you the same question that you asked me.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01With a client who's struggling to take action, what advice would you give them?
SPEAKER_03So this is what I'm gonna say to everyone listening. If you're thinking about taking action, if the whole point of you taking action is only to succeed and to avoid failure, you're doing it wrong. You need to stop focusing on the outcome and start focusing on the action. The most helpful mindset that I tell people to adopt is that action equals success. And all of the outcomes good, bad, accomplished our goal, failed at it, are learning. The only way to fail is to not do it. Action is success, all outcomes are learning. You need to commit yourself to imperfect action. Stop worrying about your action being perfect. It's impossible. You need to just be regularly committing yourself to imperfect action. You can have excuses or you can have results. Keep going, keep moving, start doing. Flex your doing muscle as much as possible, and you will see much bigger results in your life.
SPEAKER_01That's great.
SPEAKER_00You're great. Thanks, baby. You're welcome.
SPEAKER_03Well, Hannah, thank you for being our first ever guest on the Sage Solutions podcast. I think we can all agree that you brought a lot of extra value and insights into this conversation.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for having me. This was fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03We'll have to have you on for a different topic again soon. So remember, look at your life, figure out where you need to be taking action, and just do it.
SPEAKER_01Just do it.
SPEAKER_03See you next week. Thank you for listening to the Sage Solutions podcast. Your time is valuable, and I'm so glad you continue to choose to learn and grow here with me. If you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on more Sage advice. One last thing the legal language. This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. No coaching client relationship is formed. It is not intended as a substitute for the personalized advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.