Everyone wants to take initiative, but some find it hard to do. In this article I am going to show you how to start taking initiative and how it will help you in your life. The process is easy to maintain, but hard to start. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, everyone has the ability to start taking initiative.
Why do I want to take initiative?
Taking initiative means that you ,on your own merits, go out and take the first step toward something. There are many great examples and here’s one I will provide for you. At work an employee takes the initiative to start a cleaning project without being asked by his or her supervisor. The employee going out on their own and doing something shows that they can take initiative.
People love it when you do something without being told. Especially if it’s something that will really stand out, or something that has been needing to be done for a while. People who regularly take initiative, stand out wherever they go as a person who really wants to advance their career, lead by example, or show that they care about something. If you can master this skill you will go far in life.
How Do I Start Taking Initiative?
It’s really simple to explain how to start taking initiative. The hard part is taking that first step. Once you do that, then maintaining it is easy. It’s kind of like hitting a lucky streak. Once you get the first few in a row right, then they just play out in your favor one by one until your streak is over. The only difference here is your streak will only end when you want it to. You are in control of your initiative and can keep it going for as long as you want. Some of the big reasons that people don’t take initiative are fear of failure or criticism, might be a bad choice, hesitation, lack of drive or motive, laziness, or don’t see the importance.
If fear is your problem, then you need to realize that the only thing you really should be afraid of is not trying. How do you think inventors got their ideas started? I promise you every single person in the world who did anything big, took initiative at some point in their life. If they didn’t they would have probably got stuck working a regular job at minimum wage. There is nothing wrong with having a regular job as long as you are happy. You have the opportunity to advance your life no matter where you are, how old you are, or how much money you have. Back to fear now. Don’t let fear control you. If you are afraid to try a new way to clean something at work , don’t be. Most of the time, the worst thing that can happen is somebody will tell you not to do it again. There is however, always that chance that your initiative will be recognized and rewarded. Your reward could be a simple “good job” or could be a promotion.
I have been using work a lot in my examples, but just to clear things up taking initiative will benefit all aspects of your life. How would you feel if you came home to a clean house, all the bills paid, kids fed, car cleaned and waxed, all the laundry folded, etc.? Probably feel really good toward the person who did all of this for you. Especially, if they did all of this as a surprise without being asked. If they sit around wondering, what would happen if they did all of this instead of actually taking action, nothing would have gotten done. That’s why it is very important not to hesitate when making a decision to take initiative. Trust your gut feeling and if something feels right to you, just go with it.
You can think of initiative like this, “If you see something that needs done, do it.” That’s about as simple as I can put it. The truth is most people do not take initiative. They will come up with all of the excuses in the world, why they didn’t or won’t do something. The truth is they spend as much time coming up with reasons, as it would have taken to just get that thing done. Don’t fall into this trap. As soon as you see something that looks like it needs to be done, take initiative and do it.
Unfortunately there are a lot of lazy people out there. All of us have a lazy spell now and again, and this is perfectly natural. If the reason you aren’t taking initiative is because you would rather just sit around and do nothing, then you are being lazy. Lazy will never get you far in life and people will pick up on it quickly. Take that first step even if you don’t feel like it. Once you get started it will be easy to keep it going. Tell yourself there will be a time later on to be lazy and reward yourself with lazy time after you get things done.
If after all of the things I have pointed out in this article, you still don’t see the point, it’s ok. I can’t cover every reason or every scenario as to why you should start taking initiative. I can however gaurantee if you start doing it today, and keep trying until it catches on, you will see a major life improvement. Don’t ask me to go into all of the small details about this, just give it a show. What do you have to lose?
I hope you enjoyed this article on how to start taking initiative. There are many other great articles on this site to help you with other personal development topics. All I ask of you in return for this free information I have provided, is to share. The more we share, the more people we can help. Good Luck!