I lived in Brazil for several years.
Sixteen, to be exact.
One of the things I like best about Brazil is that people are passionate and fervent down there.
Among other things, they’re passionate about religion.
One of the common phrases that Brazilians always use when they want something is “if God so wants.” That they get what they want because it’s granted by God, and that everything they get is because of a superior power.
As far as I can tell, that belief is not enough. You also have to do the work.
God, or the Universe — or however you wish to name the force that integrates everything that exists — can give favorable conditions, but you have to claim what you want. And you do that by taking action.
And that goes for your clients, of course.
You can’t expect them to randomly take the right action. If you want to help them take consistent action toward the results they want, you have to take a few more variables into account.
Basically, the question they struggle with, is…
“How do I get myself to do what I know I need to do to get what I want?”
- What can I do to stop procrastinating?
- How do I motivate myself to do this?
- How do I figure out the most effective way to get there?
- How can I become good at doing this?
And they tell themselves…
“Ah, no worries. I’ll figure it out eventually…”
And most people take action the first day. And the second day. And most of them can make it three days, if they #hashtagFeelingInspired a little.
But that’s where issues begin.
If they need to do something for 3 days, they can get themselves inspired to do it…
- What if they need to do it for 60 days? — that’s 20 times as long.
- What if they need to do it for 180 days?
What if they need to do it for the rest of their life?
At that point, just getting inspired won’t cut it anymore.
You really shouldn’t let them hinge their life on something unsustainable as inspiration and “when I feel like it”.
What they need (to have a stable, consistent flow of results) is a sustainable flow of action-taking.
In short: you need to approach action-taking systematically with them. An approach that addresses more than just goals and action-taking.
CAREFUL: one thing to keep in mind here…
A human being is a complex system with many moving parts, just like — for instance — an airplane. You can’t build an airplane and, at the last moment, think: “oh no, I forgot the turbine”... and then strap a turbine to it.
Similarly, you can’t just strap these elements onto your client. You have to embed them in their “mental DNA”. The sooner you integrate them into the fiber of their being, the better…
