Your Best Year Ever

Now it’s your turn. Your best year ever isn’t a movie you can sit back and watch. It’s a vision that needs to be built, starting now, or it won’t come true. It’s no accident you were drawn to this book and that you’ve stayed with it till the end. This is your year; this is your moment.

Don’t defer your dreams. Don’t delay your goals. Don’t procrastinate on the one thing you need to do today to make meaningful progress in your personal or professional life. Once you’ve determined your next step, take it. Don’t wait. Take a LEAP.

Patton took action. We need to do the same. If you want to see a big change and combat the Law of Diminishing Intent, you must be willing to take a big LEAP. It’s as simple as four steps, one for each letter of the acronym:

Lean into the change with expectancy. When you notice that a change is desirable or necessary, that’s your green light. Punch the gas pedal. That inkling is all you need to get going.
Engage with the concept until you achieve clarity. Don’t let the feeling pass. Work with it until you’ve got a sense of what to do. That nagging thought in the back of your mind might be the start of a whole new adventure—or the ladder you need to climb out of a deep rut.
Activate and do something—anything. Sometimes we wait to move until we have all the information. That’s a mistake. Clarity comes in degrees. And you only need enough light for the next step. Even if you get off on the wrong foot, the rest of the journey will become clearer as you go.
Pounce and do it now. Once you’ve determined your next step, take it. Don’t wait. Waiting feels safe, but waiting kills dreams.

you can beat the Law of Diminishing Intent and create your best year ever by leveraging what I call the LEAP Principle:

NEVER LEAVE THE SCENE OF CLARITY

WITHOUT TAKING DECISIVE ACTION.

Jim Rohn noted that our intention tends to diminish the longer we wait to take action.

Sometimes we can imagine exactly what we need to do. We can picture it clearly. We’ve defined it; we might even have a detailed plan of execution, but we don’t execute. We’re like General McClellan—all plans and no punch. Soon you’ll be susceptible to the Law of Diminishing Intent.

It states, the longer you wait to take action, the less likely you will be to take it.

We sometimes fail to achieve great goals because we can’t imagine them or how we might accomplish them. They don’t seem possible. But Clarke also highlights another problem, one he calls the “failure of nerve.”

Dreaming up big results can be emotionally satisfying and intellectually stimulating. But getting started requires action. And that can be tough. After all, how can you . . .

make room in your schedule for date night?
find the hours it takes to vision cast and strategically plan?
leave the comparison trap behind and focus on the value you bring to the world?

Those are good questions. And they’re important to answer. But proceeding without all the answers is not the real risk here. Not even close. The real risk is this: When facing these sorts of challenges, instead of taking action we can coast on the good feeling of the dream without taking the necessary steps to see it realized.

It came down to a failure to act. I knew I had the speeding ticket. I just hadn’t gotten around to paying it. I hadn’t done what I knew to do. I procrastinated instead.

I can’t tell you how many people do this with their goals. All those folks who set New Year’s resolutions and then bail? All those people who develop lofty plans but never execute? Everyone you know who seems to wait for the next big thing to happen instead of going and making it happen? It all comes down to a failure to act.

Utilize Activation Triggers

Brainstorm the best activation triggers for you. Remember to leverage what comes easy in order to do what’s hard. Don’t rely on your willpower in the moment. You’re going to face obstacles, so anticipate those and determine the best if-then response in advance. The idea is to plan your workarounds before an obstacle derails you. Then optimize your activation triggers with elimination, automation, and delegation. If you don’t have it right to begin with, experiment until you nail it.

Whatever your goal, the trick is to simply think through the contingencies and obstacles that will prevent you from achieving it. Once you’ve thought through the most likely hang-ups, you can pre-respond so you know what to do the second they occur. It might take a little imagination to think through the potential obstacles to your goals, but it’s worth it. Once you’ve used activation triggers a few times, they’ll become second nature.

Phase 3: Experiment Until You Nail It

This is the key to success. You’re going to experience setbacks—especially if you’re normal. When you hit a wall, it’s time to pivot. Your goal might be sacred, but your strategy isn’t. Don’t give up on your goal; just change your approach.

That means modifying your activation triggers until they’re working right for you. Sometimes all it takes is a small tweak.