We all have goals and dreams, but making them a reality requires action. Whether it’s starting a business, asking for a raise, applying for a new job, or putting yourself out there to find a relationship, nothing worthwhile comes easily.
Yet many people find themselves stuck, unable to take the necessary steps to create the life they want. Why is that? What holds us back from reaching our full potential?
As it turns out, action is not just one single act. Rather, it is made up of 4 key components that work together as the ingredients for forward momentum. Identifying weaknesses in any one area provides clarity on where you need to focus your efforts to eliminate blocks and excuses and start actively creating the future you envision.
The 4 Components of Action
Here are the four elements that make up your ability to take action and achieve your biggest goals:
1. Energy (25%) – Having the physical and mental energy required to follow through. Without adequate energy, it’s nearly impossible to consistently take action.
2. Clarity (15%) – Understanding what specifically needs to be done and why. Trying to climb the ladder of success only works if it’s leaning against the right wall.
3. Subconscious Permission (25%) – Having conscious and subconscious alignment behind your actions. When conscious desires conflict with subconscious blocks or limiting beliefs, you self-sabotage progress.
4. Self-Discipline (35%) – Following through despite discomfort, uncertainty, or changing emotions. Motivation comes and goes; self-discipline means acting regardless.
Each component makes up a certain percentage of your overall ability to take action. To reach your full potential, all four pieces need to be maximized and working together seamlessly. Just like a car can’t drive with a flat tire, deficiencies in any singular area deflate your momentum.
Let’s explore some common archetypes that highlight how imbalances show up, so you can better understand your own unique sticking points.
3 Archetypes That Reveal Imbalances
Here are three common action imbalance archetypes:
1. The Seeker
The Seeker is someone obsessed with clarity. They read endless self-help books, take courses, listen to podcasts, and think they just need a bit more information before taking action.
This overemphasis on clarity often leads them to get stuck in analysis paralysis. Seekers mistakenly believe that a perfect plan presented to them – if they gather just a bit more knowledge – will guarantee flawless execution.
Reality shows that clarity emerges gradually through action. As long as you have the basics in place, seeking 100% mapping of the path forward typically wastes time and energy. By waiting for certainty, Seekers rob themselves of critical learning experiences.
Just ask anyone wildly successful – whether an elite athlete, business leader, or expert performer – if they had everything perfectly planned from the start. You’ll be hard pressed to find a single person who did. The clarity came once momentum started through action.
2. The Burnt Out High Achiever
This archetype includes disciplined high performers who push themselves to burnout by not balancing drive with adequate energy renewal. Working non-stop in overdrive eventually takes its toll.
You can only willpower your way through exhaustion for so long before both your mind and body pay the consequences. Depleted energy without recovery time leads to impaired concentration, lack of motivation, and feeling overwhelmed.
When you don’t take time to recharge, you slide backwards on progress much faster than if you put in consistent effort with occasional breaks to relax and reboot. Burnout can be avoided through priorities and boundaries that value rest as a key ingredient alongside hard work.
3. The “Health Nut” Running from Inner Issues
Some people focus intensely on nutrition, fitness and healthy lifestyles not to feel good, but to compulsively avoid dealing with anxiety, self-worth issues, or traumatic experiences.
In essence, the relentless pursuit of outer wellness masks fear of facing inner doubts, uncertainties and emotional discomfort. No amount of green smoothies or jogging can by itself resolve those subconscious demons.
At some point, you have to go inward through journaling, meditation, therapy or some form of letting go. Releasing stored tensions brings newfound Mental Energy and Clarity to understand what changes can move you forward internally as well as externally.
Assessing Your Personal Balance
To determine which component most needs your attention:
Step 1 – Draw a pie chart splitting it into quadrants labeled Energy, Clarity, Subconscious, and Self-Discipline.
Step 2 – In each quadrant, rank yourself on a scale of 1-10 to quantify where you currently stand in that category. 10 means excelling fully and 1 equals major deficiencies dragging you down.
Step 3 – Identify lowest numbers that represent gaps sabotaging your progress.
Where you have 7’s or 8’s celebrate the fact you’re doing great in those domains. Don’t get stuck constantly working on areas where you already excel. Effort goes further improving any scores below 5.
Choose just one quadrant at a time with your lowest score as a starting point for upgrades. Set an initial goal for 30 days of focusing heavily on boosting capabilities only in that zone through daily habits, journaling or concrete action steps.
At the end of a month, reassess your score again in that segment. Any improvement?”
For example, putting in concentrated energy to boost Self-Discipline from a 3 up to 6 makes a big shift in momentum. Once firmly establish, move clockwise onto the next lagging segment heat map visual.
Conclusion:
Mastering the Components that Comprise Action Leads to Greater Achievement.
Banishing excuses and overcoming inertia depend less on motivation and much more on recognizing gaps weakening the structures supporting consistent action.
A single tire with low pressure slows an entire vehicle. Remove roadblocks in the way of what you want and progress flows faster. Each small gain creates compounding returns over time. Building capability in all four areas making up action is like upgrading from a beat up clunker to a supercar.
The process begins with awareness through honest assessment. Where are you excelling right now and which capacities require the most improvement? From there, targeted refinement brings balance back to your system.
You already hold more potential within than you likely recognize. Unleash your full abilities one piece at a time by strengthening individual components eventually multiplying into collective force. No need for overnight transformations; simply begin and build momentum.
Are you ready to defy limitations and claim the life you truly desire? The first step starts immediately after you make the decision to rise above self-created barriers. A journey of one thousand miles begins with one step in the right direction today. You got this!
