The best visions goals, dreams plans. Don't take us anywhere. Unless we actually do something unless we add action to those plans, those dreams, those goals, those roles. And so when we discussed courage in the previous episode, we talked about moving away from just the intention to harnessing the courage, to make the decisions and to set the plan in motion to get something done, but nothing beats. 

Just getting up and doing it. And that's what we're going to talk about. Every building, you see someone did something the children feed in. Being educated businesses growing and glowing and thriving people getting care. All of this is about action. And that's what is so important because whatever you need to achieve. 

It's right behind the action that you're about to take. And that's what we want to talk about. Action is how dreams are made. And so the late cognitive scientists. Francisco Varella. He said it best when he defined sort of the relationship between acting and confidence. And he said, It does to create your reality as you step into it. 

I love it. To create your reality as you step into it. And that's the role of action in building? Any skill or confidence. Confidence as a skill that we're focusing on today. As you step into action. That's how you create the reality of becoming more confident. And so. We must admit though, that this is all easier said than done. 

When it comes to take an action, there are a lot of things that get in our way. We are. Planning and not acting. We are perfectionist. So we want to make sure every I is dotted every T crossed before we move up in. We don't want to make mistakes. We definitely don't want to fail. We are not sure of ourselves. We don't want to be embarrassed in front of others. We don't want people to judge us. 

We're not sure for our abilities. All sorts of things. Get in the way of us taking the action. Sometimes it's just lack of discipline, lack of motivation, lack of focus, lack of direction. And sometimes it's lack of vision. Whatever it is. That's getting in the way of you taking the action that you need to develop your confidence. You need to identify it. 

And rooted out because you will never develop confidence in any area. Without taking action first. Action and confidence have that relationship. Action is you stepping into. Becoming more confident. All right. So we won't let any of those culprits get in the way of us taking the action that we need to now finally step into our confidence. 

Business insider shared a story that I'm going to share with you is a story of Percy Spencer. Percy Spencer was an engineer conducting a radar related research project with a new vacuum tube. And so Percy realized while conducting this experiment. That the candy in his pocket started to Mount. 

He realized something was going on here that was not planned for. And then he decided to see what would happen if he put corn. Into the machine. He had corn accessible. He put corn into the machine. And the corn started to pop. I personally realized, okay. Something really interesting is happening here. 

This is not what he was about. This is not what he intended to do. But by acting. He found some other results showing up at his stable. This is how the microwave was accidentally invented. The microwave in your house. Was invented by someone doing one thing. And find in some additional results. And so I'm pretty sure the microwave has been a better invention than the one he intended originally, but Percy went out and did something. He was exploring, he was researching, he was experimenting. He was doing, he was acting. 

And in that process results that we never even imagined. Showed up at his doorstep. And so that's the reason you told one to wait and plan and plan them short Percy planned. I'm sure he thought about it. He sat up Jack Teves. He had a vision for where his research was going to take him. Serendipity. 

Became part of that research. And so Percy has a much better outcome than you even anticipated. What if you knew. That getting up and going after something right now, getting up and taking action right now. Could likely produce you outcomes that you're not even imagining much broader than the small frame of reference that you have. What if you thought about that? What if getting up and taking that first step into your reality into creating your reality? 

Could produce outcomes that you'd never even imagined. What if. And so. You may ask. Why are you sharing the story? I'm sharing the story to encourage you. I'm sharing this story. To invite you to take imperfect steps. I'm sharing the story to invite you to start acting on that one thing that you want to be confident in now. 

I'm sharing the story to say you don't need to figure out every single step of every single thing that you need to do. To build your confidence in this area. That you're may not need to have everything all mapped out from the beginning to the end. You may not have all the resources that you need from beginning to end, but perhaps you have the resource to take that first step. 

I'm encouraging you. To start. To get a bias for action to get up and take that first step. That's what I'm encouraging you to do with the story, because you will go after what you want confidence in this area. But there's a whole world of other possibilities that may open up around you. Let's get to action. 

And so. If you're feeling like you're afraid to fail, you're afraid to make a mistake. There's sufficient literature to suggest it's better to fail fast, fail forward, or fail trying. Much better than doing nothing at all. In fact failure becomes one of the greatest forms of feedback. Feedback that provides you valuable knowledge and assets to use as you act going forward. And so do it now. 

Right. Fail now. Better to fail doing something. Than to fail, doing nothing at all. Right. So there's another possibility. When we're afraid of action that we don't spend as much time on. What if you succeed? That's a possibility too. What if you succeed? What, if you succeed beyond your wildest imagination, what if you become the person that is most confident in this area? What is your, you become that person? 

Let's go for it. Let's try. There is that possibility too. Sometimes we don't explore that once sufficiently. So what I want to encourage you to do. Is to think about. Whatever action you need to take, whether you fail or succeed. You will get better. Every time you take a step, whether you fail or succeed, you're learn. You learn better how to take the next step. 

And the next step and the next step. So if you're suffering from ongoing planning, If you're suffering from plan plan plan. If you're suffering from analysis paralysis, if you're suffering from perfectionism, I know that one. Very good. That's when I suffered from for a long time, probably still suffer a little bit of it. 

The need that everything you do must be perfect. That's you're the only person that can get it right. And get it done absolutely on point and it's takes too long to get other people to get it takes too long to show it to someone else. And I don't have enough time to do it. So you don't do it, whatever it is, that's holding you back. I think we can come to the place where there is something that's out there that we would like to get better at. We would like to build our confidence in, and we are the, the person that's standing in the way of our confidence. 

Perhaps you are the person standing in the way of the confidence that your team needs to build, or your children need to build, or your community needs to build. How are we holding on and being gatekeepers? I have the opportunity to make mistakes, to learn, to grow, to upscale. Are you creating the environment within your organization where people feel safe to make mistakes? 

Do your children. I feel safe to make mistakes. These are things that we struggle with. Okay. And so all of us have to come back and reset and rethink, how are we? Feeling what's the mindset that we have around failure and learning and growing and stepping into the creation of greater realities at the greater confidence. 

All right. So the point I want to make is that it's better to do. Something imperfectly. Than nothing perfectly. So let's make sure we're clear on that. Nothing gets no outcomes. It doesn't matter how much time you spend doing nothing. You'll get nothing out of it. But there are things that are absolutely imperfect that can produce great outcomes. And so let's get on this path to try things out in an imperfect way and see what comes, learn from it and go again, give yourself space to make mistakes, to try it and to try it and to go back at it and to perfect it. 

But you're never necessarily going to perfect it, but to be comfortable that I perfected the next time. I don't need to perfect it this time. Alright. So, one thing that I want to flag up is that there are so many perfect plans that are dead on paper. You know, this dead on devices, dead in the cloud. So many perfect plans that never. 

Lifted off. The police where they were planned. And there are many imperfect plans, even people who didn't actually have a proper plan that went out and did something and in the process learned and iterated and got many things done. So you have to decide, do you want to have a plan, a product, a process, or a service? 

What is it that you want to have and how do you want to build your confidence? Do you want to talk about confidence and dream about it, or do you want to actually have it. So, if you want to have it, you have to act in that way to get it. Let's talk about. Mistakes and failure, which is just some of the things that really get in the way of us at it. 

Mistakes and failure. Sure feedback. Accurate good quality feedback that you don't have to ask anybody for it. They give that to you. If you just reflect and learn from your own mistakes and failure. They create opportunities as well because in the process of making mistakes or failure, it expands your learning, expands your mindset and expands your understanding. 

It attracts support. Sometimes someone notices the mistake that you've made and they may be able to provide some insights or it may point you to what you need support in. So these are things that are really important. And remember, serendipity may benefit you. You start off thinking, this is the way it's to go and you realize, oh, 

It could be done this way as well. Serendipity may benefit you  as I shared with you earlier,  many of the inventions out there, many inventions. Were discovered by serendipity. Your sticky notes, the slinky peninsula, and a lot of big inventions that we benefit from over and over today. Some of us live by. 

 Were discovered by serendipity. That was not the intended invention. And so go out and make those mistakes. Expand your mindset, expand your learning. And bring other support into, into your space. I assess what is a reasonable risk. So I want to make sure that this does not come off as go and just do anything. You see, jump over a bar. That's not what we're suggesting here. 

We're suggesting that you do make sure that you are making the assessment as we did in I episode 66 to six, go back to six to six and see you need to assess and to make sure that the risk is reasonable. We talked about that once you've done that assessment and the risk is a reasonable risk. Go make a mistake. 

Go make a mistake. Go learn. Go get better. Go build your courage. That's what we talked about in the previous episode, go and build your courage to take risks. Go do that, go practice something practice doing, even if you don't do it the perfect way the first time, just do it. Dip your toe in the water. Get in there and get cold or jump in. 

 Do it. And that is how you're going to build your confidence. You're not going to build your confidence in a new skill by talking about it. You're not going to build your confidence in a new skill by writing about it, unless it's the. The skill of writing that you're developing. Okay. So I'm going to share four steps. 

To take an action that builds confidence. I'm going to use the four steps laid out by the PTSA cycle. The PTSA cycle is a cycle also referred to as the demin cycle or the demin wheel popularized by Dr. Edward demons. And this is a, an American academic and businessman who is known for quality improvement, particularly in his work in Japan. 

And so. He has set out this cycle for us to improve. And I'm introduced in that cycle to you as a means by which you can improve your confidence. Up-skill any single thing in your life. The P D S a cycle. Plan. Do. Study and act plan, do study act. And it's a cycle.  You never stop. And this feeds right into why it's okay to go ahead and make a mistake each cycle. 

You're going to learn from the cycle. Each cycle you're going to continue to get better. This is why I really love this cycle for helping you to build your confidence. All right. If you want to change a process. If you want to improve a product, if you want to bring about change, if you want to build skills and particularly if you want to build your confidence, come with me on this four step cycle. 

Plan do study act. Let's do it. Step one plan. So what this means is to plan it, test it observation, make sure you're doing your background research. You're learning about it. If it's a skill you want to develop, let's say you want to learn how to do speaking public speaking. Or given speeches, teaching a class, running your own podcast, whether you want to run your own channel, teaching others, whatever it is that you want to do, if you want to become a hairdresser and nail tech. 

If you want to start your own consulting, coaching, whatever it is that you want to do. Don't just get out and. Start doing it. We started at intention, the planning stage. Then we went to courage before we came to action. So make sure you're following that order. Go do your research. If you want to be a presenter, go do your research. Look at presenters. See who you like learn about the style, learn about the steps, learn about the strategies, design your own way of doing it. 

Bring something together that becomes you and follows the way that you are going to uniquely deliver yourself. So that's the planet. 

Who are you going to present to? Where are you going to present? How are you going to present? What's the cost going to be? Why are you doing this? And when you get the opportunity to do it. So what. Think through that process. And then step two. It's going to be go and do it. Piloted. So pilots. It's to test. 

It's a trial. It's a prototype, whatever it is, depending on what you're doing. Something small. Start small. Bite a piece of it. See what it's all about, learn about it, right? When you get that, whether if it's, for instance, speaking. Speak at your high school, speak to your child's class, your neighbors child's class. Speak to your community, speak to your family, speak to your friends. Start small, start safer environments. Start where you're comfortable, but start, try it. Get feedback, go to step three, which is to study. 

And I know sometimes the same cycle is. Presented as the PDCA, which is plan, do check act. And, but I do like the use of study because to study means to go back and to reflect on it. To bring all these things and to make sense of what you've learned. And so set aside time to analyze the information you've been given. 

Whether that information is feedback, which is qualitative, whether they're numbers that you notice. You showed up, you invited 20 people. Only two people came, whatever, mixed the data, whether it's qualitative or quantitative study, it make sense of it. But also don't. Undermine your own insights, your own intuition, your own learning, your own reflection. Add all of that. That's what study and means. 

Once you've studied that step three. Step four now. Act. Refine what you've learned. Decide on the right bite size step for you. Whatever that is. So now you may want to do something. If you did five people before now, you can try 20 people. Or if you did five people with  15 minutes. Maybe you do five people within an hour, but just how are you going to expand what you bid off the first time into a more manageable bite, but still going out a little bit more courageously to actually go and do this thing. This time you may charge a fee. 

This time, you may actually do it in a different setting. Whatever that is. Go ahead and do it. So that's, that's the cycle plan do study and act now. Let's go through this one more time. Plan. Map out your ideas. If you want to become a consultant, a speaker, as I said, what is it going to look like? What is he going to feel like? What are you going to get in return? What are you going to contribute? 

Who do you want to have an impact on who will you support? Who will support you? What obstacles may get in the way, how are you going to deal with that? How will you fund it? Remember. You won't necessarily have success right up front. You already know we come in with a readiness to fail forward. So we're going to make sure that we have contingencies and supports in place. 

What happens if do some scenario mapping, what happens if I show up and there's no one in the theater, like what happened to Tyler Perry? When he showed up for his big first show, there was one person in the theater. What do you do? How would you deal with that? What happens if you show up and the place is completely oversold and there's chaos. 



What happens if you have massive success, what happens if it flops? These are questions to ask yourself in the planning stage, do a little bit of scenario mapping. What happens if you're not able to deliver what they ask you for? What if you have no money? What if you don't get paid? Map out the whole thing, that's the plan. 

And then go to step two. Whatever that is. Start practicing how you're going to offer your services. How you going to develop this skill? Make sure. You're not thinking about when you have nothing when no one is asking you when you have no money, map it out as if you are now the person that people are calling on. If that's what you're doing. 

If it's playing the piano, if it's driving, if it's riding your bike, if it's given a speech, if it's consultant with the company, if it's marketing, whatever it is, when you are planning this thing out planet as if. It's going to be for real. Planet. Aspirationally stretch yourself. When you come down to do it bite in that small piece, maintain all of the things. If you plan to be a professional, even if it's your family, don't sit in front of them and act like, oh, casual, comfortable. 

Do it like it is going to be professional. They will give you the feedback. Alright, choose a low stakes environment at the beginning. For instance, lunch and learn at the place you may want to start, right where you are in your own workplace. If you're developing a skill volunteer to do something, volunteer to coach, to mentor, to train, volunteer, to. 

Set up a project that will help you to build, build the skill, whatever it is. Do it with a neighbor, do it in your local community. Do it with a friend, set up a class, make it for free. You're learning. There's a price you pay for your own learning. And then when you go to number three, as I said,  reflect on how this works for you. 

Get feedback. Look for mentors. Look for coaches. Look for models online and offline. We're in a virtual world now, where are your models? Your mentors can be across another continent. Participate in groups, look out for communities with like-minded people learn in similar skills as you build that out, incorporate learning from them. 

And update your process as you go through. And then do it. And study it, do it and study it as often as you like. Before you go to the next step, which is to. Take a real piece off and get out there and get it done. Taking that action. The real action. Going beyond the bite-sized practice to doing it for good. 

How do you do this? Fast. 

Decisive. And. We've talked about starting small, starting small and keeping it small and growing it organically. Building on your skills organically, right by toff. Just what you can handle. And as you get comfortable, bite off another little piece. Slow and steady is the way to do it. Don't stress it. 

Just do it. Don't overthink it. Slow and steady consistently authentically. At your pace for your reason? But the most important thing is that you are consistently taking action and moving yourself forward. Each step that you take, you are therefore creating your reality are more confident. You. Uh, more skilled. You are more competent. You are more courageous. You are more intentional. You see, I a. 

Courageous intentional. And certainly. A bias for action. That's what's going to get you your confidence. And so you've got it. Now. You just have to go for it. You win by doing. And action. Does take a lot of courage, particularly when you're doing something challenging. But lay down your path. By doing, creating your reality as you step into it. Okay. As our dear friend has told us. 

Action. For creation of your reality. And so then we're going to learn from this reflect on how it works. Get the feedback, update our process, refresh yourself, start the cycle over again with this new information. That means you're going to start here. You're going to go here. You're going to keep growing with each cycle you're supposed to be moving forward. And even if in a cycle. 

You fall right back down. Just keep coming back up again. Okay. We never fail. We never lose all because as long as we're learning, we're moving ourselves forward. And so each iteration plan to get better, use the cycle to help you to hit each goal as you desire. Remember each step you take, you are creating your own reality. 

So we'll mistakes happen. Absolutely. Absolutely because you're human and mistakes define the human race. Do you know that . Even Einstein, in fact, his most popular formula. He made mistakes about it. So don't worry if you make a mistake, mistakes come with the territory of growing and becoming more. So making mistakes and failing. That's not the problem. 

Following the cycle is a way that you can systematically. Do the actions that take you in the right direction for your ongoing development, ongoing progress and continual improvement. If you're a learner, if you're a leader, if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a parent, this cycle works. If you're leading others, if you're a part of a team following someone, this cycle works. If you're contributing from anywhere within your organization, this cycle works. 

And the results. We've got better and better over time. It's a confidence building cycle. You build competence. Courage confidence, all the things we talked about, those seven season episode. Six to seven, go back and see them. This cycle will help you. Doing and acting is the only pathway to confidence. 

And that's why stepping into it. It's creating it. So do a little, get a little courage. Do a little more, build a little bit more courage. Improve your skills, build your competence, build your courage, boost up your self-belief. Build your intentionality. And as you build more and more courage and competence and intentionality. 

Your confidence will begin to grow and to flourish and you will feel it. And as you take each step with more and more confidence, you're building a better and better reality for yourself. That is it. The key. It takes time. It's not going to happen overnight, but get started now. And be patient, stay with it. Be consistent. Believe in your vision of yourself. I'm more confident you, whatever you choose to do. 

When you're done listening to this podcast. Don't just put it down and walk away. You're not going to remember. Pause and make a note of what you're going to take from this and how you're going to use it. Listening. Strengthens your ability to learn, but it's not the way that you build a confidence for this kind of skill. So put aside 30 minutes in your calendar. 

15 minutes at the beginning of the week, 15 minutes at the end of the week. Make plans for what steps you're going to take the little actions. Come back at the end of the week and track hold yourself accountable. If you fall off one week, that's okay. Get back on the next week. If you fall off two weeks, get back on. 

Some people fall off three months in a row and they put in nine solid months and they're way out there. Some people fall off one week and spend the rest of the year beating up on themselves for falling off one week. Don't you worry? If you fall off, get back up. If you fall again, just keep getting back up. 

Start your week with your plan, check on it at the end of the week, keep holding yourself accountable to doing it. To going out and doing it. It's only through doing that. You can create your reality. So stick with this four step PVSA cycle. To build in your confidence. Remember the CIA formula C I a courage intention. And action is how you build your confidence. Start with your plans, your intention, build up the courage to make the right decisions and to go for it and then just do it. 

Take those steps. Step into it. And create a confident life and self that you desire and deserve. 

Thank you for listening to this episode of UpSkill Talks brought to you by McGraw Hill. We bring you new episodes every Monday. Please take a moment to subscribe, leave a five star rating and a written review at apple podcast. Or follow us on. By Google podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, don't forget to share UpSkill talks with other leaders like yourself.

So they too may gain the skills and insights to produce amazing results. Please go to UpSkillCommunity.com to review show notes and learn how you can join a community of leaders from across the globe. Collaborating to lead in a more meaningful and impactful way. I'm your host, Michel Shah. And again, thank you for joining me on this episode of UpSkill Talks.