What Level of Action Are You Taking?
In my book, Aligned Action: The Key to CEO Effectiveness, I wrote about the importance of aligned action – of making sure that everyone in the company is working on the right things in the right way.
But I realize now that I did not explicitly address the LEVEL of ACTION. How much action do you really need to take to achieve your goals? Probably a lot more than you think. Here’s an example.
Last summer I was leading a seminar on consultative sales when my voice gave out mid-way through the morning. I made it through, but for several months afterward I experienced pain and tiredness whenever I talked for any period of time. For someone who makes a living speaking, teaching, and coaching people, losing your voice is scary. It took me a while to get a good diagnosis, but I ultimately figured out that my voice problems were triggered by a combination of diet, allergies, incorrect speaking patterns, and a coincidental sports injury that caused tension in my neck.
My goal all along was clear – to restore the health of my voice. I tried a variety of treatment methods, therapy, and rest. Sometimes these methods would help – sometimes not. When I did start to improve, I would lighten up on my treatment and then backslide. My voice problems were getting worse.
I was still struggling into the fall when I discovered a book called The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. Cardone defines four levels of action that we can take in pursuit of a goal:
- Do nothing.
- Retreat.
- Take normal levels of action.
- Take massive action.
He argues that most people never reach their true goals because they operate at level 1, 2, or 3. To really succeed, you need to act at a 10X level. You must take massive action.
I realized that I had been taking normal levels of action, followed by periodic retreat. No wonder I was still having voice problems. I was doing the bare minimum.
So I made a decision to go ALL IN. I made immediate and radical changes to my diet and lifestyle. I eliminated wheat, alcohol, coffee, caffeine, carbonated beverages, and acidic foods. I started doing twice-daily voice exercises. I changed up my daily calendar to ensure rest periods for my voice. After several months of this new approach, my voice has made a complete recovery. (Until I allowed the dietary restrictions to relax a bit during the holidays – and noticed minor irritation resuming. So now I’m back on the program.)
The point of this story is that if you really want to create a breakthrough in your life or business, then you need to take a LOT more action than you think. For me, it took a major shift in consciousness – my entire mind was focused on both the goal itself and the magnitude of action that is required. Every choice and action was in this context. Once I started acting at a 10X level, I got very good results.
As one of my mentors says, “If you want to change your life, then you have to change your life.”
I think the real problem for many of us goal-oriented people is that we’re taking normal levels of action – 1X levels – and expecting big results. We set a goal, plan what we think is required to achieve it, and then get to work. When we fall short, we wonder “what happened?”
Figuring maybe we just needed to do a better job at estimating 1X, we sharpen our pencils the next time, but may still fall short.
The problem with this 1X normal level approach is that we are aiming to do the bare minimum level of action necessary to achieve a result. What’s the minimum number of push-ups to do? What’s the minimum number of sales calls to make? Just figure out how little I can do and still get the job done.
But this approach is not going to work to create a major breakthrough. So many change efforts fail because they radically underestimate the level of action required. Why? We underestimate the power of inertia, of habit, of our subconscious mind trying to keep us in our existing paradigm, and of our existing relationships which may also try to keep us locked in the same patterns.
Therein lies the wisdom of the 10X Rule. We have to take massive action to create a breakthrough. If you are at one level in your life and business and want to get to the next level, normal levels of action simply don’t get us there. We must go all in.
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How about you? Ever take 10X massive action? What kind of results did you get? On a scale from 1 to 10 – how were your results? Let me know in the comment box below.
