Action means converting your thoughts into a physical reality through consistent effort. It is putting things in motion and getting them done. ‘To act’ is to work on your thoughts to achieve your goals.

Every action that you take is the result of a desire that resides deep within your heart. If your intentions are good and you are clear about what you want to achieve, you are already halfway to success. It is the Power of Action that will take you through the next half. What is required is firm faith in yourself and a clearly defined purpose. The Power of Action is born in your heart as you aim for your goal with a strong will.

We all know that a seed cannot become a tree in one day. Every seed has an inherent capacity to grow but it needs a caring gardener who will plant it in the correct environment and take care of it with patience until it grows into a tree. Similarly, your soul has the potential to embrace the universe around you and give shape to your dreams, ambitions and desires. All you need is to act like the caring gardener of your mind, body and soul.

Action is a natural process
Growth is a natural process. A seed becomes a sapling with natural ease. Does it make any special effort to grow? Certainly not.

Once you start following the simple steps mentioned in this chapter, you will be able to tap the natural secret of setting things in motion with the least effort. Most people do not take action because they think it is painful to act. But they forget an important fact: that everything in the universe is in constant motion in some form or the other. Each and every cell of your body and each atom of the universe is in motion. So taking action is something that you do in harmony with the universe.

Co-ordination with the least effort
The human body is a classic example of co-ordination with the least effort. Innumerable living cells perform individual actions but they work together to ensure that the body works smoothly. Your heart, for example, beats over one lakh times a day; yet you are probably not aware how effectively it functions. The same goes for the brain, the liver and many other organs. In a larger sense, our body is the perfect example of great teamwork. Similarly, when you use the Power of Action and have a clear goal all your body parts get into a rhythm to achieve the target.

Two Action Steps:

Step 1: Act with positive feelings. Take action in the direction of your goals with courage, confidence and conviction. When you do so, results will start showing up sooner or later. Also, others will start seeing you as a charismatic person.

Step 2: Learn and improve continuously through the Power of Action. You stand here today because this is where your thoughts and education have brought you. To go further you need to bring about a paradigm shift in your thoughts and actions through an investment in self-improvement.

Success Mantra: Do something to improve yourself daily: take a walk and talk to yourself positively, record your voice with positive auto-suggestions, read motivational quotes, or just plan your day and work according to the plan.

©Shishir Srivsatava, Motivational Speaker and Author ‘The Eight Powers within You’
www.shishirsrivastava.org and www.eightpowers.com

Will power is your inner strength to make decisions and act on them regardless of internal resistances. The Power of Will exists to help you cope with life’s challenges. It drives you to attain goals or apply your talents irrespective of your emotional state. It gives you the strength to overcome inertia and build momentum, and empowers you to achieve what you want by sticking to the job till it is done. Your Power of Will is strengthened whenever you reject instant gratification and instead choose to concentrate on something worthwhile.

The Power of Will helps you to gather your energies and focus them in a positive direction. Let’s say laziness prevents you from going on a planned morning walk. This is where you need to apply your Power of Will. This power can help you to overcome bad habits such as overeating, laziness,
procrastination and indiscipline.

The Power of Will prospers when you develop the ability to control unnecessary and harmful impulses. It improves the ability to arrive at a decision and follow it through with perseverance until its successful completion. When you decide upon a list of things and behaviour that you will no longer accept from yourself, your decision-making ability grows and so does your will power.

The three important factors that affect the development of your Power of Will are:
1) Self-discipline
2) Self-control
3) Self-determination

1) Self-discipline helps you do the right things in the right way at the right time, whether you like doing them or not. It involves setting standards that you always adhere to.

You are blessed with a free will; it is through self-discipline that you can train your will to overcome obstacles. Self-discipline may be used to lose weight, take up exercise or form a daily routine. It helps you persevere and rise above procrastination, laziness and indecisiveness. Self-discipline helps you respond to all tasks with the appropriate behaviour.

2) Self-control keeps a check over your internal universe—your thoughts and emotions—to gain control over your will and actions, which create the universe outside you.

According to an ancient Indian proverb, ‘Before conquering the world, the king has to first conquer himself.’ This holds true even today. To become successful, you must increase your Power of Will and exercise control over your thoughts, emotions, will and reactions. The more you can do this, the more successful you will become.

Self-control helps you to focus on your job. You are a treasure trove of energy and power. These can be best utilized when you stop succumbing to your cravings and whims. Once you start controlling unprofitable thoughts and become aware of the choices you make every day—even every hour—you start becoming more powerful from within.

3) Self-determination is your decision-making ability. Self-determination helps you to stick to your resolutions. Maybe you have tried to change your eating habits but failed to do so because of a lack of inner strength and persistence. Most people have had such an experience. Once you have determined to shun laziness and take control over your emotions, you will develop the ability to stick to your resolutions. You are born to be rich, famous, successful, happy and healthy. If you have fallen short on any of these counts, it only means that you need to examine the state of your spiritual orientation. Your inner voice will guide you towards the right path. You must listen to your feelings, notice what is working and what is not. Resolve to change your life. Self-determination is the vital first step.

Two Action Steps:

Step 1: Keep a check over your negative emotions: Negative energies will try to pull you down like gravity. They may draw your attention to minor things and distract you from your real goals. So, beware of them and remain focused on your larger goals.

Step 2: Reject instant gratification: If you see an ice-cream parlour while walking down a street and are tempted to have your favourite flavour, do not give in to temptation. This way you will learn how to postpone gratification.

Success Mantra: Develop your willpower by using self-determination and self-discipline to keep a check over your negative emotions, and do what is necessary.

©Shishir Srivsatava, Motivational Speaker and Author ‘The Eight Powers within You’
www.shishirsrivastava.org and www.eightpowers.com

What are Goals?
The difference between a dream and a goal is that a goal is clearly defined in writing and has a specific deadline. Dreams are merely wishes or fantasies. Goals help you to increase your focus. They give you momentum by making you fully aware of the direction in which your work is taking you. Therefore, having a written goal statement is much better than having no goal at all.

Goals are written statements that provide a meaningful direction to your life. They help you concentrate your energy on the path of achievement and fulfilment. So it is essential that you define your heart’s desire in specific terms: with a deadline and a written goal statement. This way you will give a clear direction to your life. Goals act like a compass on the ship of your life; without them you will keep floating midway, with nowhere special to go.

Why set Goals?
During my presentations, members of the audience often ask me, ‘Why should I set goals? Can’t I do without them?’ I reply, ‘You certainly can. Not everyone who has achieved great results learnt how to set goals first. But what they achieved in ten to twenty years, you can achieve in five years
or less by the Power of Goal Setting.’

Our mind works best when it is up against challenges that have to be met within a reasonable time frame. For example, if you want to double your income without setting a goal, then with 5 per cent to 10 per cent annual increment you will automatically double it in ten to twenty years. But that will be too long a wait, isn’t it? Especially when it is possible to double your income in three years—by writing it down as a goal statement, taking concrete steps and reviewing your progress on a weekly and monthly basis.

‘Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.’ —Tom Hopkins

Why don’t you set goals in a variety of areas so that you develop a complete personality? Here are a few ideas:

i) Personal: Education, family, friends, personal development (health, nutrition, fitness, skills,
spirituality), home and travel.
ii) Career: Career, business, finance, savings, income and investments.
iii) Contribution to society: Volunteer work focusing on people, environment, etc.

Writing a goal statement
Remember these essential five steps when writing a powerful goal statement:

Step 1: Find your peak energy time. Write the statement during your peak energy hour. It could be the morning or the afternoon. You may want to play your favourite music to lift your spirits.

Step 2: Start writing. Take a pen and a white sheet of paper. Write the date and a list of 10 things that you aspire for.

Step 3: Identify your most important goal. Out of these 10 goals on your list, encircle the one which, if achieved in the next year, will have the biggest positive impact in your life and career. Write down this goal on the other side of the paper too.

Step 4: Decide on a deadline. A goal can be best defined as ‘a realistic dream with a specific deadline’. You must aim to achieve a goal within a time frame that forces you to act fast. To do this, you must ask yourself, ‘What is the approximate time it will take me to accomplish my goal?’ Then, whatever is that time, reduce it by half. If you think it will take you two years to get something, aim to achieve it in one year and write the deadline on top of your most important goal. This will keep reminding you of where you are vis-à-vis where you have to go.

Step 5: Write down your goal statement. It is important to keep three things in mind:

(i) All goal statements start with ‘I’. Remember that the goal statement is yours. When you put ‘I’ at the very start, it becomes personalized.

(ii) Write your goal statement in the present tense. The ‘I’ should be followed by a verb expressed in the present tense. This is because the subconscious mind reads and believes only in the present. If you talk to your brain in the future tense and say ‘I want to’ or ‘I wish to’, it reads these as ‘wanting’ or ‘wishing’ thoughts. Result: your conscious brain cannot do anything about them.

(iii) Your brain will see this work as something to be done in the future. To put real power behind your goals, you must write them down in the future tense.

(iv) Express your goals with positive words. Instead of saying ‘I want to lose 10 kg in three months’, say ‘I will weigh XX kg three months from now.’

Life mostly unfolds the way you expect it to. Stick to your goals with positive expectations and work with passion. This will quicken the process of goal achievement.

Your goal statements should be easy to understand. Even a child should be able to figure out what you are aiming for. Once you have written a clear statement regarding your most important goal, you can jot down statements about other areas of your life. Here are a few examples of goal statements:

i) I, Rita Sharma, am savouring the beautiful view from the window of my new home. Deadline:
ii) I, Ashish Mehra, am enjoying driving my brand new BMW. Deadline:
iii) I, Priya Malhotra, am running a successful business. Deadline:
iv) I, Rahul Gupta, am feeling thrilled at graduating from the Harvard Business School. Deadline:
v) I, Sonia Nigam, love to exercise daily and am enjoying being at my ideal weight of 58 kg. I am
fit and in excellent shape. Deadline:

Someone rightly said, ‘Aim to shoot for the highest stars, in case you miss them you will land on Mars!’
When you set your eyes on a big goal, you work hard and stretch your capabilities to achieve it. But if your goal is not challenging enough, you are unlikely to leave your comfort zone—and the result will be little or no success.

Two Action Steps:

Step 1: Read your goal statements often: Try to read your goal statements at least twice a day. Initially read them just before sleeping and then immediately after getting up. The subconscious brain continues to function even after you fall asleep. It can register your goals and work on them throughout the night. When you get up, you will be more driven to work.

Step 2: Take action daily: To accomplish your goals on time, work on them every day. Sometimes you may not be able to give your best to your work. Still, do what little you can. This way you will move at least one step towards your goal.

Success Mantra: Set your goals in the direction of what you want and love to do the most. Keep the burning desire alive in your heart and act with a calm mind.

©Shishir Srivsatava, Motivational Speaker and Author ‘The Eight Powers within You’
www.shishirsrivastava.org and www.eightpowers.com

After World War II, a small group of people gathered with its leaders in a burnt-out departmental store in devastated Tokyo. They had nothing but the strong belief that they could develop technologies that would help rebuild Japan’s economy, which had been destroyed by the war. Those twenty people had the conviction that even though Japan did not have sufficient natural resources, it did have the necessary people-power.

The company they founded amid the debris was Sony, an immense success story today. What kept Akio Morita, the CEO of Sony Corporation, going was the Power of Self-confidence.

Self-confidence is an attitude which helps to build a positive and realistic perception of ourselves and our abilities. It is about expressing our assertiveness, optimism, enthusiasm, affection, pride, independence and trust. Though we may be inspired in a moment to achieve something great in life, self-confidence is not built overnight. It is the affirmation and reaffirmation of positive and self-empowering beliefs. Our self-confidence is shaped by what we repeatedly tell our subconscious mind.

The law of self-confidence says that whatever you believe with certainty will become your reality. If you repeat something over and over to yourself, your subconscious mind starts believing it to be real. It cannot distinguish between positive and negative things. If you say to yourself ‘I can’t’, it will believe it; if you say ‘Yes, I can’, it will believe that too.

‘Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.’
—C.W. Longenecker

All great achievers, all self-made millionaires and anyone who ever achieved anything worthwhile started with self-doubt. Most of us begin with doubt and an inferiority complex. Every man or woman who has ever achieved anything worthwhile went through a phase where they had little or no confidence. But they did not give up. With courage and faith in themselves, they one day set out on the long journey towards their goal.

Be it an interview, an examination, an instance of public speaking or anything else, you can ‘feel’ the situation you are about to face—and, more important, prepare yourself for it—beforehand. The more you put yourself in real-life situations, the more your confidence will grow and the better your performance will be. So practise, practise, practise and your self-confidence will get a boost.

Self-confidence is formed through positive beliefs. Self-confidence comes through repetitive affirmation. It is strengthened by positive thoughts that give us courage and confidence to do things right. As you start believing in yourself, your self-confidence builds up.

Two Action Steps:

Step 1: Say to yourself daily in the morning as you get up: I’m building upon my self-confidence today and feel myself changing and improving each day.

Step 2: Say to yourself daily before going to sleep: I dream and have confidence in my dreams. I believe I can fulfil my dreams.

Success Mantra: Have full confidence in your powers. Keep telling yourself that your future will evolve just the way you want it to—and that this will happen sooner rather than later.