Becoming a Person of Action

Few things speak louder than words. Words create worlds. In the beginning, the world was formless, but then God spoke, and the world took shape.

We are His image, and our words, like his, can create.   

God deeply loves those who have faith in him. The faith of a mustard seed, we are told. A mustard seed has two qualities. One, the potential to grow, and secondly, transform into something totally different in awe-inspiring ways.    

For these two qualities to show, there has to be action. Without action, faith is useless.  

"Show me your faith, and I will show you my action."

We need faith, but faith is made real by action; two sides to a coin.   

Becoming a person of action requires that we have faith.

Faith that the thing you believe in will come to be while trusting and having confidence without evidence.

To have exceptional success in the things we do requires that we step forward in faith.

Life has many obstacles. Many fears and struggles. We lack the skills, self-esteem, education, social profile, or qualifications. These obstacles face us, and we feel like the mustard seed. Small, insignificant, and unable to overcome or surpass them. The obstacles are the mountains before us that seem unable to move.           

How can we ever see the mustard seed grow into a mustard tree, or see the mountain moved?

How is it done?

How do you even start the journey when you are a serial procrastinator?

If you want to be a person of action. And one of the massive actions that Grant Cardone talks about, keep reading to the end.   

Realize You Are the Mustard Seed.

This points to seeing the necessity of growth and recognizing your innate potential.

A mustard seed starts its life in the company of many other mustard seeds. Small, insignificant, and part of the crowd. If they are to sit together and say, “We are mustard seeds, there is nothing special about us.” They will miss the journey of Becoming.        

For that journey to begin, we must tap into a great endowment we all have which is creative imagination and see more than what surrounds us. A mustard seed grows into a tree of seeds, flowers, leaves, stem, and roots. All these things are tied to its DNA, but it needs to imagine what it can be, and then focus and give attention to that growth.                

Identify What You Need To Grow

A mustard seed is meant to grow, you may say. Naturally, it is wired to grow, but this happens when offered the right nourishment. Not all mustard seeds grow.   

Mustard seeds thrive in loamy soil rich in organic matter. They require sunlight for photosynthesis. And regular watering, but just enough. Overwatering can be detrimental; waterlogging can kill the plant. The plant requires cool temperatures. It requires spacing and not overcrowded, sowing the seed ¼ inch deep and spacing appropriately to avoid overcrowding.

We, just as the mustard seed, require fertile soil, in the supportive environment of family, friends, community, or workplace, which nurtures personal growth. A toxic environment of any of the above stunts or destroys growth.  

We require sunlight through exposure to enlightening experiences. Be they ideas, learning opportunities, or constructive feedback, they fuel our intellectual and emotional growth.    

Just as mustard seeds need regular watering, not too little, not too much, we need consistent self-care in proper nutrition, exercise, and healthy mental practices. This maintains the internal balance necessary for growth.

We must be adaptable to change, level-headed, as the mustard seed’s preference for cool temperatures allows it to thrive in varying circumstances.

Just like the Mustard seed needing spacing to grow, you need to establish clear personal boundaries, stand apart from the crowd, and set achievable goals that ensure your focus is on growth.

 

Your Environment Determines Your Growth

You have to know which spaces and relationships you engage in daily.

Do your friends, colleagues, and mentors inspire and challenge you? 

Surrounding yourself with individuals who encourage growth can significantly impact your personal development.

Does your physical environment, home, workplace, or community promote focus and positivity?

Create a clutter-free, organized space to enhance mental clarity and productivity.

Do you consume books, podcasts, and online content aligned with your growth objectives?

 Consuming positive and educational content can reinforce your goals and values.

You also need to clarify what personal growth means to you. Understanding your objectives helps to identify environments that align with these goals.

Is it an advance in career, or improving relationships, or enhancing well-being?

Seek and engage positive influences in your life, be it mentors and role models, who exemplify the qualities and achievements you aspire. Joining groups or networks that share your interests and values provides encouragement and accountability. 

Further to your physical space, maintain a tidy and organized space to reduce stress and enhance focus. Incorporate elements that inspire you, including artwork, plants, or motivational quotes. Ensure that your environment supports your activities, with the necessary tools and resources.

The journey to personal growth is ongoing, and requires you to reflect periodically whether your surrounding continues to support your goals. Be willing to make changes, including seeking new relationships or modifying your space, to align with your evolving objectives. And always seek feedback from trusted individuals to gain insights into how your environment affects your growth.

 

Embrace Incremental Progress

Do you value progress that comes through small, consistent steps?

We believe progress should be measured by success and romanticize it as loud and public. Anything less and it borders on failure, and we fear failure greatly. Success, we desire to happen now and miraculously.       

Yet, we must change to see small, consistent steps as more sustainable, reducing the toll on emotional, mental, and physical well-being.   

How do you then change your belief about progress?

Start by setting micro-goals, breaking larger objectives into smaller, manageable tasks.  

For example, to improve your health, start with a 5-minute walk each day. Easy right? Too easy, that’s why people never start. Once there is consistency, you can increase the time and the distance you cover. But always start small and with something you can consistently do to maintain motivation.     

To keep the motivation, recognize and celebrate each step forward, no matter how minor. This reinforces the positive habit you have formed and keeps you motivated to continue progressing.     

As you progress, be patient and trust the process. Many times, we want to take charge again and get instant results, which may cause us to lose motivation and even our will to proceed. Change takes time. Resist the urge to rush; consistent effort yields results, and patience is key for long-term growth. 

To make adopting new habits easier. Link them to your existing routines and tasks. You already brush your teeth as a routine, so introduce a small meditation session immediately after. This technique leverages established behaviors to make adopting new ones easier. 

Aim to improve by just 1% each day. This is the tiniest of improvements you can muster, with little resistance. Intentionally even saying “I will do 1% better today,” will give you the courage and motivation to walk for one more minute, or do one more pushup, or read one more page, anything that is an improvement from yesterday.  This minimal daily improvement can have a substantial impact in the long run. 

To know you are progressing, track your progress. This could be in a journal or digital tools that record daily achievements. Tracking provides concrete evidence of your growth, keeps you accountable, and helps identify patterns or areas that need adjustment.

As you are doing all this you must believe that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work, and this fosters a love for learning and resilience, which are essential qualities for embracing incremental progress.    

And after all is said and done, be kind to yourself, especially during a setback. Progress is not linear, and it's ok, to have off-days. Self-compassion encourages perseverance and reduces the likelihood of giving up when challenges arise. 

Cultivate a Growth Mindset

How do you sustain the right mindset through incremental setbacks?

The right mindset believes that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, effort, and learning. One who views challenges as opportunities and persists in the face of setbacks.

This is not an easy mindset to have. But there are strategies to take it up progressively.

The first strategy lies in changing our perception of challenges. We normally have a painful and even negative response to challenges. But we can begin to cultivate a positive response and see them as opportunities that open doors for us. Instead of avoiding difficult tasks, we see them as a chance to grow.

A nifty exercise is keeping a gratitude journal, where you write a daily list of things you are grateful for. In the list, you can write at least three things you consider as challenges, reframing them as things you are grateful for occurring. This starts to shift your mind to look for opportunities in things you previously considered difficult. 

The second strategy builds on how we frame things in our minds. This is tied to our beliefs, belief systems, and thoughts. Your mind may be screaming that failure is bad. But if we introduce a second voice that starts to look at the valuable lessons that failure brings, you can start to reframe your thoughts. Analyzing what went wrong with the aim of continuously improving, realizing that failure is but a stepping stone to success.

I will reiterate, be kind to yourself during times of struggle.

To grow, we must embrace mistakes and not languish in self-criticism. To keep learning, you need to regulate your thoughts and emotions away from negativity, and this requires you to take a journey into self-awareness.  

Actively ask for feedback from peers, mentors or supervisors. Constructive criticism provides insight into areas for improvement and demonstrates a commitment to personal development. A caveat here: ask this from people you trust, who desire your growth, and who know. Sometimes we listen to friends who have never done anything in our area of interest, but they will dissuade us from taking any steps.

Surround yourself with people who support and challenge you to grow. More so, a community that values growth can inspire and motivate you to have a growth mindset.

Please do mind your language. We are used to throwing around words that destroy and wound us, without being aware; watch your words like a hawk. When you feel like saying, “I can’t do it”, add the word “yet”.  Use language that reinforces the belief that abilities can be developed over time.

For instance, “I can’t solve this problem, yet.”

Focus on process-oriented goals that elevate the learning process rather than outcomes.

I had a goal of writing a book; an outcome. My process goal was to write 600 words a day.

I wanted to run a marathon; an outcome. I ran for 50 minutes daily.

I want to become one of the best speakers in the world; an outcome. I practice speaking for 20 minutes daily as a process goal. The approach encourages continuous improvement.

And as always, acknowledging and celebrating small victories reinforces the value of effort and encourages continued perseverance.

 

Create Positive habits

Start by understanding habits. Research shows that between 45% - 95% of daily behaviour is habitual – done automatically without thought. Habits form the invisible architecture of our lives, and once formed, they function invisibly from our awareness. Habits allow the brain to save on energy. Thus, the brain loves habits, whether good or bad.

In the environment you are in, the thing that triggers you to behave automatically, be it a person, emotion, an event or thought, plays a big role in shaping your habits.

Some of the habits we have are brushing our teeth, checking our phones, how we respond emotionally and even walking or driving a car.   

If we change our habits, we can change our beliefs, change our identity, results and future. This is why you have to intentionally create positive habits.       

Every habit has a trigger or cue, followed by a routine and ends with a reward. If you alter any of these three you can change a habit. You can change your trigger by managing your environment. You can change the actions you take when you are triggered, and you can also change the reward, or alter what the brain sees as a reward.  

In all these, start small. Many want to eat the elephant whole, instead of small, manageable pieces. Consistency and commitment are more important.  

A 5-minute walk that you do daily for a month is more effective than the once a once-a-month 10 km run.  

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but be specific and clear in what you want to do.

Instead of “I will go to the gym.” Have, “I have a gym plan of what I will do in the gym.”

 Instead of “I will eat healthier,” Have “I will include a serving of vegetables.”

Design your environment to support your new habits. Like placing running shoes and exercise clothes where you can see and wear them for that run or exercise regimen. Place fruits in your living space, and remove all sugary treats from your fridge and spaces.

Remember, you can create habits for everything you want to do consistently.

From morning routines like stretching, journaling, regular exercise, reading and meditation. To mindful eating, enjoying every bite and avoiding distractions. To regular exercise, and even the practice of gratitude. You can create a habit of continuous learning, dedicating time to learn new skills or knowledge in areas that promote personal growth.

In conclusion, like the mustard seed, establishing positive habits involves nurturing small beginnings that bring about significant transformations.  The smallest of actions, when consistently cultivated, can lead to substantial outcomes.

Therefore, start small with purpose, plant in fertile ground, nurture with consistency, be patient and trust the process while celebrating those small victories, to stay motivated.  

Remember, when the habit is established, it may evolve and lead to other positive changes across your life. Embrace this transformation, much like the mustard seed, which grows into a tree that provides shelter and nourishment to others.

In the end, the actions we take must be intentional and best accomplished as habits. 

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Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! I'm Edwin Moindi, a Life and Habit Coach dedicated to helping people understand their habits, navigate their emotions, and cultivate emotional intelligence for a happier, more balanced life. I'd love to hear your thoughts—feel free to reach out and share your insights or questions!