Big dreams are easy. Taking consistent action—especially when your motivation just isn’t there—seems impossible.
Last week we learned how to never burn out towards our goals by focusing on our Maximum Sustainable Activation Energy.
This way of thinking is critical to get yourself to start doing** **more, but it’s not always obvious how we implement this mindset in our day-to-day.
So how do we actually create processes and routines that reinforce positive behaviors and habits, independent of our peaks and valleys of motivation?
In other words, how can we create systems that positively reinforce taking action?
Enter the Domino Framework.
Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.
- Arnold H Glasow
Action: The Foundation for Progress
Suzy knows what she wants. She wants to run a marathon.
She already planned an effective route to get there, so her objectives are clear:
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Build up her weekly mileage to 50 per week.
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Run 20 miles in one go.
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Stay injury free.
She knows that to achieve these objectives, she needs to stay laser-focused on specific, measurable key results week over week.
She’s going to start slow — at one mile the first week. She knows she needs to be mindful of and constantly recalibrate her maximum sustainable activation energy so she doesn’t burn out.
With a game plan like this, there’s no way Suzy fails, right?
Well..fast forward a few weeks and she’s not hitting her key results. Her plan is already derailed and she’s about ready to scrap the whole thing.
Sound familiar? We’ve all gone through this.
The fact of the matter is that having a meticulous, focused strategy for chasing goals means nothing if you don’t take action.
Believe it or not, no matter how awesome your training plan is, you’re never going to run a marathon if you can’t act on that consistently.
Now, finding a sustainable plan with reasonable expectations is important, but long-term success often involves continuously raising the bar, and this is rarely a comfortable thing to do.
Especially since committing to action means you’re constantly putting yourself at risk of failing. And humans don’t like failing.
The bottom line is, you need to be able to take action. And it’s always easier said than done, especially since our motivation comes and goes.
We need to create systems that breed action, regardless of our motivation or level of discomfort.
This is where the domino framework comes in.
The Domino Framework
Taking action toward your goals is not complicated. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, though.
Sometimes we’re so focused on the end goal or developing a perfect process, that we forget that success lies in gradual, continuous progress.
The domino framework simplifies and optimizes taking action by helping you hone in on failure points and “points of no return”.
Step 1: Identify the failure points.
On the days Suzy actually gets herself to run, she feels awesome and finds she actually enjoys the workouts.
So the difficulty of the workout isn’t the failure point. It’s not that she’s unable to do the hard thing to better herself.
The failure point for Suzy is that she can’t even get herself out the door.
So if you’re struggling to remain consistent with something, ask yourself where you’re failing.
Where are the actual points of failure for engaging in X? What are the actual barriers to taking action?
Write these down. You need to be constantly aware of these.
Step 2: Find the first domino(s)
Suzy decides to take a comprehensive inventory of her past few weeks. She dissects her successful days and examines the trends.
She realizes that on the days she puts on her running shoes, she’s been 100% successful. Suzy needs to be laser-focused on making this happen.
Simple, right?
After you’ve identified your failure points, you need to find your points of no return—your first dominos.
Look back on your successes. What are the factors that lead to those successes? What are the common denominators?
Obsess over measuring your successful days and examining their patterns, and these first dominos will become apparent.
Step 3: Optimize first dominos by taking control of your failure points
Suzy has identified a powerful first domino—putting on her running shoes. Now, she knows she needs to make changes in her environment and day-to-day to optimize for it.
An easy first step would be to put them in a place where they glare at her until she takes action.
Our physical and social environment is one of the most powerful factors we have control over, and we can leverage it heavily in our favor to optimize for taking action.
The problem with our environment being so powerful is that it also can also work against us heavily.
Despite her new successful running habit, Suzy is still missing her weekly mileage goals. After going out on the weekends, she never makes it out for her runs the following days.
Luckily, this is an environmental factor she can control, and can take action on it.
If running this marathon is really important to her, maybe she should look towards different social outlets.
If she really doesn’t want to replace her nights at the bars, she could move all her training days during the week.
There is never a one-size-fits-all solution for these things. Ultimately, building systems that prioritize taking action is up to you, how you balance your life, and what you’re willing to sacrifice for progress.
No goal is worth being constantly miserable for. At the same time, finding great success rarely comes without sacrifices.
Throughout each of your daily iterations of personal growth, constantly ask yourself what you truly want in life, and your equilibrium will fall into place.
A month of newsletters already?!
The feedback thus far has been phenomenal and it makes me beyond happy to hear these messages resonate with some of your own personal development journeys. We’re just getting started!
Keep growing 🌱
Jake
This was originally published on my weekly newsletter Circadian Growth