The Two Types Of Follow Through

There is nothing that changes your life, or changes the world, like taking action. Existence follows its natural course until something is done externally to disrupt it. Many people default to living in the flow that comes from all the events and actions taken around them, but some choose to create their future by taking intentional actions that shape it. 

Follow through involves having a clear intention for what you want to do and then executing it. The shift in reality is only as good as the clarity you have for what you are going to do… And the clarity means nothing if you don’t put it into practice. 

There are two different types of follow through that each need their own explanation: Following through once on something you need to do, and following through consistently on what you know is best.

Following through on something once is often thought to be an act of will. You need to sit down and submit your taxes, make that hard phone call, ask that person out, and bite the bullet one time. You know what you need to do, now you just need to do it - and it will change your reality when you do.

The best way to make taking action one time easier is by implementing acute interventions into your environment. You can put yourself in a peak state that fills you with confidence before making the phone call. You can lay out your mail all across your desk to make it inconvenient to do anything else. You design your environment one time such that it nudges you toward taking a specific action.

Alternatively, and the focus for many people in their personal development, is to take action consistently. Consistent follow through is so powerful because it constantly nudges existence in your favor. Building a new exercise routine, getting in the habit of creating a schedule for the day, or choosing to review your family finances once a week are all meaningful actions to follow through on consistently.

Designing your environment for consistent action requires structural interventions. These are fixtures and features embedded in your life that change the way things flow. Adding structural interventions often involves upgrading the systems that run your life - writing out an exercise plan for the week, having a scheduling procedure, and setting a recurring meeting with your partner to review finances all function as new and improved systems.

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