Five Simple Words To Ignite Action

On Saturday I had two very different presentations to give. One was to a group of leaders who manage children's programs in churches. The other was to a group of high school students who are leaders in the youth organization, FFA. I am extremely passionate about both of the organizations and wanted to make each program as impactful as possible-go the extra, extra mile if you will.

As I planned for each group I tried to think of a simple model to give them to take their experiences at their respective conferences and put them into action. In this fast-paced world I have found that have a "tool" I can take out to plan, create or correct something is so important. A step by step plan keeps me on track and produces better results.

What I finally came up with scared me in its simplicity. I simply wrote down 5 words that I have seen used a million times. They were:

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why

I then developed them into 5 questions like:

• Who is on your team? (support, accountability)
• What are you afraid of? (identifying obstacles)
• When are you going to start? (taking small steps immediately)
• Where are you with your life? (analyzing personal strengths/weaknesses/habits)
• Why would taking action now matter? (creating a sense of urgency)

Both presentations went extremely well-it's easy to be good around good people I always say. People commented that the words gave them clarity and focus about the "How" that would undoubtedly need to come next.

But the steps kept ringing in my head all weekend-and I used them to push me to work on tasks that were important-instead of just focusing on the urgent or the "busy work." Try it for yourself the next time you need to motivate yourself to action on something. Five simple words.