Imagine you have only two things on your To Do List:

Which is more important? (The finances)

Which would you do first? (The bread)

Why? Well, one reason is because it’s unclear how to start with the finances. After all, the first step of buying bread is obvious – go to the shop and buy it. But the first step of restructuring your finances?

When you want to do something, you need to know where to start. In other words, you need total clarity on your first step.

And, this is also critical when you’re giving actions to others. After all, when people don’t act on what you say, it can look like resistance or defiance. But it’s more often due to them not knowing what to do, and/or how to start. Being crystal clear with their first step removes this problem instantly.

But, unfortunately, people’s Calls To Action are often just rallying calls – “Restructure your finances!”, “Improve teamwork!”, “Sell more!”, “Increase engagement!” and the like. All have one thing in common: the recipients could well think, “I know that. I want to do it. But how do I go about it?”

Step 1: Identify what the First Step Is

Since people need to know where to start, prepare by working backwards: begin with your rallying call and keep saying “Before that” until you get to the first step:

Step 2: Be Clear When You’ll Do This First Step

You know to look in the telephone directory first but, without a deadline, there’s no urgency. So, this second step is – although important – very simple: just add a deadline – “I’ll look up the number in the telephone directory after work today.”

Step 3: Ensure You Remember, By Reminding Yourself

Even if you know exactly what to do, and when to do it, you could still forget to do it, because it didn’t pop into your head at the right time (let’s face it, we’ve all experienced this before). So do something to remind yourself – for example, put a reminder in your diary or ask someone to remind you.

So, let’s look at your To Do List now:

This three-step process means it’s now as easy to start the finances as it is to buy bread. This makes it much more likely to happen.

And it’s the same when giving actions to others. Be clear on their first steps and deadlines, plus offer to help them remember.

So, for the other rallying calls I mentioned earlier, you might say instead:

This is a great technique for triggering instant action, but you need time and headspace to think about it. The next chapter shows you how to get a lot more of this than you have now.