Sometimes to get what you want in life, you need a make a bold move. Whether you want to change your career, face up to a difficult relationship, or even literally move to another location, you won’t get there by doing nothing.
Before you can make bold moves, you need to be in the right mindset. At the root of every action or inaction is a belief.
Our beliefs drive our thoughts, which in turn drive our feelings. Our feelings are what prompt our actions. If you find yourself unable to act, you need to look at the root belief that’s keeping you from acting.
Once you’re ready to make a big move, it can seem overwhelming and scary. I’ve broken it down into three elements to help you make that bold move toward the future you want.
Courage
Courage is defined as “the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous.” You know making your bold move isn’t going to be easy and change is often intimidating. When it’s time to do something daring, you need courage to make it happen.
Trust yourself. You need to trust that you can maintain healthy boundaries and hold yourself accountable. Trust yourself to know when to ask for help.
If you’re doing something gutsy, you can’t beat yourself when you make a mistake or things don’t go quite as planned. Give yourself grace from wanting to be perfect. Being bold is probably going to get messy, but that’s ok!
Face your fears. Everyone has fears - fears of the unknown, fears of failure, fears of judgement - but your faith in yourself has to be bigger than the fear of failure. Do this thought exercise and take time to consider, What’s the worst that could happen? Believe that you’re worth more than what the obstacle in your path is.
Review your successes. Look back at what you’ve done in the past to show yourself that you’ve already done something difficult and succeeded. It can be something small, it doesn’t have to be a world-changing success to prove to yourself that you can do it. Boosting your self-esteem with the reminder of previous success is a great way to prepare for tackling another tough challenge.
Motivation
As you prepare to make a bold move, stop and consider why you want to take this step. Motivation is the reason someone has for acting or behaving in a particular way. If you have a strong motivation driving you, it’s easier to make the tough decisions required for a bold move.
Find your “soul purpose.” When your bold move aligns with your “soul purpose” in life, the core reason for your being, you can do incredible things. But first, you need to understand what that purpose is for you. There are countless ways of framing the question - What lights you up when you’re doing it? What fulfills you? What are you good at doing? Your soul purpose will keep you from regret because you were able to be motivated by it to make a bold move toward your happiness.
Plan your work. Whatever your work is - working on yourself, a relationship, a career project, etc. - write down the steps to achieve your desired result. You need to take time to slow down and figure out how your bold move will come to fruition. It will get you excited about doing it.
Love yourself enough. Choose to work on yourself and get excited once you’ve decided to do something for yourself. You’ve made the choice that will get you to the move you want to make.
“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” M. Scott Peck
Commitment
If you’re going to make a bold move, you need to be dedicated with your whole heart to doing it. Commitment means being dedicated. It’s a state of being and a quality. Another word for commitment is consistency.
In social & emotional intelligence, this concept is called “initiative and bias for action” - being proactive and persistent, ready to act on an opportunity.
Go all in. Do your actions reflect that you’re committed 100%? If your actions aren’t all in, you need to go back to your belief and see what the problem is. Are you using your time focused on getting where you want to be, or are you still prioritizing comfort and ease?
Carpe diem - Seize the day! Be ready to act on opportunity when it arises. Proactively look for opportunities. What are you reading and who are you spending time with? How you spend your time determines if you find opportunities or not.
Eat the elephant. How do you tackle a big task? One bite at a time. Consistently work on little steps to make the bold move happen.
It’s not easy to take these consistent steps, but when you’re 100% committed, it’s makes things a lot easier.
It’s time to live your best life, even if it requires making a bold move that scares you. Choose you. Choose to do the thing that will get you to where you want to be.
You have the opportunity to write your own story. Will you have regrets when you go back and read it? Make the bold move so you can live a life free from regrets!