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change course along the way. Build your confidence with less analysis and more experimenting.
Choose some tasks that affect only a small number of people. Set yourself an absolute deadline to
move forward and go for it. Act, get feedback on the results, refine, and act again. Be brave with
some bigger tasks. Pessimist? You may examine things to death because you’re a chronic worrier
who focuses on the downsides of action. Write down your worries, and for each one, assign an
upside—a pro for each con. Once you consider both sides of the issue, you will be more willing to
take action.

Want to learn more? Take a deep dive…

AsapScience. (2012, December 12). The science of productivity [YouTube]. AsapScience.
Branson, R. (2011, September 27). Richard Branson on time management. Entrepreneur.

Shellenbarger, S. (2009, November 18). No time to read this? Read this. The Wall Street Journal.

5. Don’t like risk? Start small. Sometimes taking action involves pushing yourself, taking chances, and
trying bold new initiatives. Doing those things leads to more misfires and mistakes. Research says
that successful executives have made more mistakes in their careers than less successful ones.
Treat any mistakes or failures as chances to learn. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Increase your
comfort with risk. Start small so you can recover more quickly. Go for small wins. Don’t blast into a
major task to prove your boldness. Break it down into smaller tasks. Start with the one you find
easiest. Then build up to the tougher ones. Try out new approaches. Review each task to see what
you did well. What did you not do well? Set goals so you’ll do something differently and better each
time. Challenge yourself. See how creative you can be in taking action a number of different ways.

6. Not sure if you can do it? Build your confidence. Maybe you’re slow to act because you don’t
think you’re up to the task. If you boldly act, others will shoot you down. If you don’t get it right the first
time, you’ll never be able to do it. Think about when you first rode your bike without training wheels.
Did you read a manual? Study other kids riding before you climbed onto the seat? Probably not. You
just did it, likely falling off more times than you could count. Then climbed back on and kept at it until
you got it. That “just do it” spirit can get stifled by the desire to be cautious. Being successful right
away becomes more important than taking a chance by acting. Take a course or work with a mentor
to bolster your confidence in one skill area at a time. Focus on the strengths you do have; think of
ways you can use these strengths when taking nerve-wracking actions. If you are interpersonally
skilled, for example, see yourself smoothly dealing with questions and objections to your actions. The
only way you will ever know what you can do is to act and find out.

7. Bruised by failure? Focus on opportunities. Did something go wrong and you swore never to try it
again? Are you still smarting from the sting of a failed attempt? Mistakes happen. To everyone. When
Dr. Spencer Silver produced a low-tack glue instead of the super strength adhesive he was aiming
for, he could have discarded it as a failure. But, instead, he talked up its potential uses for six years.
Finally a colleague, Art Fry, recognized its practical application. And the ubiquitous sticky note was
born. Not every mistake leads to a game-changing product, but learning and opportunity are there for
the taking when things don’t work out. Reflect on three things that didn’t work out as you’d planned.
How did you deal with them? What could you have done differently in handling those situations?

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