Dreaming about what you want to accomplish in life is normal and necessary. However, merely thinking about the goals or accomplishments you want to make is only the first step. The next step? Decisive action.

Studies by several independent researchers confirm what WINology fans already knew — that demonstrating urgent excellence and decisive action are a direct route to success.

What the Research Says About Procrastination

The more recent of these two studies, conducted by Thomas C. Corley, examined 177 self-made millionaires around the globe over a span of five years. His studies found that each one of these individuals had one habit that they always avoided — procrastination.

The other study was done by Napoleon Hill who notably performed similar research for a famed 1937 book called Think and Grow Rich. Hill also found that out of the 500 early 20^th Century millionaires he studied, every single one had a lifelong habit of “reaching decisions promptly.”

While these two studies focused primarily on financial success, our ultimate goal is to win in all aspects of our lives — our personal and professional relationships, our health and fitness goals, and our educational, career and quality of life goals. Chances are many of the millionaires in these two studies were successful in more areas than just financial success.

Why Is Decisive Action So Important to Success?

So clearly, Decisive Action — the direct opposite of procrastination — isn’t a new concept.

Why do decisive action and quick decision-making lead to success? Because its’ opposite, procrastination, can be so detrimental.

According to Corley’s findings, procrastinating can damage a person’s credibility with colleagues and employers — and reduce the quality of their work, as well as impact personal and professional relationships. And it also prevents you from achieving your goals and dreams.

So How Do You Keep Procrastination at Bay?

By using its natural antidotes to their full advantage — Decisive Action and Urgent Excellence essentially go hand in hand. When you incorporate these behaviors into your daily world, procrastination becomes a thing of the past.

Let’s Talk About Urgent Excellence

Urgent Excellence, which is covered in Chapter 3 of WINology – World Class Performance, means striving for excellence in all that you do — and having the ability to recognize the urgency of a situation.

In other words, it’s the ability to recognize an opportunity and respond quickly instead of passively waiting for that ship to come in. Successful people recognize and act on opportunities as soon as they arise.

This doesn’t mean they make reckless, spontaneous decisions or they panic — it simply means they continually position themselves to be open and ready to respond when they are presented with an opportunity or important decision.

The Next Component – Decisive Action

Decisive Action — which is explained in detail in Chapter 5 of WINology — revolves around the ability to “mind your mouth” and turn negative thoughts into positive and new declarations. Once your positive declarations are formed, the next step is to put these declarations into action.

“Remember, a real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.” – Tony Robbins

While they may not have recognized or defined Decisive Action and Urgent Excellence as such, truly successful people practice both in their daily lives.

And guess what? Anyone who puts their mind to it can incorporate Urgent Excellence and Decisive Action into their lives — these belief systems are not copyright-protected by the wealthy!

So How Do You Get Started?

With a little smart thinking.

1. Start writing down the areas where you want to win big. It can be your relationships with your spouse and kids, it can be your hobbies or your personal fitness, or it can be your work or a big life project. Go ahead and dream — it’s your life, make it count!
2. Then, make declarative statements for every area. Create your own world with what you’ve written down — this is your initial decisive action and will help change your life inside and out.
3. Display your declarations where you can visibly see them – as popup messages on your phone or electronic calendar, sticky notes on your bathroom mirror, whatever works for you!
4. Then, start taking action to make each of these declarations a reality instead of a dream.

It sounds simple, and it is initially — but don’t be fooled into thinking this will be a walk in the park. Breaking old thought patterns and replacing them with new ones and having the courage and energy to truly take action isn’t easy. But I promise you, your efforts will pay off and in a big way!

What declarations will you or have you made? Let us know how it’s working out in the comments section below!

Image quote attribution: H. Jackson Brown, American author