I’ve written before about the importance of acting sooner rather than later, without waiting to figure out everything in advance. Human motivation certainly plays a role here. Nothing says this more succinctly than marketing guru Joe Vitale’s aphorism: Money loves speed.
When I mentioned this in a recent seminar, one of the attendees asked if I could be more specific. He wanted to know why money loves speed.
Before I answer that, let me say that this is not just true about money. It’s true in all areas of life. I don’t recall ever succeeding at something because I got there last.
• If you want to buy tickets from a tout for a big event that’s sold out, get there first. Tickets love speed.
• If you want a job that you just found out about, get there first. Jobs love speed.
• If you want to get the investment property that just came on the market, get there first. Investment properties love speed.
And so on. Because success, in general, loves speed.
So, why does success love speed? The answer is to be found in the dictionary. Action is defined as “the causation of change.” Whatever result you want, it’s a change from what you now have. By definition, then, a change has to take place for you to get from your present status to that result.
Following are some of the more important reasons why I believe action begets results.
1. When you do too much planning, there’s a tendency to think of one reason after another why what you’re contemplating won’t work.
Many of the reasons you come up with may be correct. But the important thing is that it doesn’t matter. Why? Because, as you move forward, circumstances continually change — and those changes often render irrelevant many of the concerns you may have had before taking action. In other words, don’t try to figure out steps two, three, and four before taking step one.
2. When you procrastinate, you tend to lose your enthusiasm.
Homeostasis — the tendency to live with existing conditions and avoid change — sets in. You get comfortable with the way things are and allow your great idea to fade into the comfort zone of oblivion. But when you take action, your creative juices flow faster, your resourcefulness kicks into high gear, and the things, people, and circumstances you need to accomplish your objectives are drawn to you almost like magic. As a result, your motivation to succeed becomes elevated.
This is not hocus-pocus. I’ve done it enough times to be able to assure you that it really works.
3. Even though changing circumstances often negate many initial concerns you may have had, they can also place new obstacles in your path.
If you wait too long before taking action, the opportunity may become less and less appealing to you as those obstacles start to make their appearance. Remember the Fiddle Theory. The Fiddle Theory states: “The longer you fiddle around with a deal, the greater the odds that it will never close.”
Time is your ally when you take action, but time is a two-sided coin. If you hesitate or procrastinate, time becomes your worst enemy. As a general rule, I assume that if I take action, perceived problems will tend to disappear and that the more I hesitate, the more time there is for new obstacles to make their appearance.
4. Perhaps the most important reason of all for taking action now is that time is finite.
No matter how proficient you are, you can only accomplish so much in a lifetime. Every second that’s wasted reduces the totality of what you can accomplish by one second. Some people maintain that a constant feeling of urgency to accomplish more is stressful, but I find the opposite to be true. I feel more stress when I procrastinate — when I’m not doing what I know I should be doing. There’s not a worse feeling in the world than to be conscious of the fact that your finite supply of time is ticking away while you focus on straightening your desk drawer.
Of course, nothing in life is perfect. There will be times when moving too fast can end up hurting you. But, on balance, the empirical evidence derived from my own experience has convinced me that what I gain from moving fast far outweighs the losses I may incur as a result of too little planning.
That being the case, when you fall — and you will fall — simply pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and take more action. Success could care less about mistakes. Success loves action — and human motivation leads to action.
