Three Steps to Develop More Initiative

Wouldn’t it be nice to be more able to take initiative?

Initiative. It’s an important concept. Think of any role model or successful person. Every one of them created their success by taking initiative. By contrast, there is no surer way to stay where you are than not to take initiative.

I don’t have to tell you the value of initiative, but it bears repeating. Whatever kind of success you want, it begins with your taking initiative. External success, like promotions, raises, gaining responsibility, funding, friendships, new ventures, and so on, results from taking initiative.

So does internal success, like developing grit, the ability to innovate, ownership, enthusiasm, meaning, passion, purpose, and joy. These things don’t fall from the sky. They result from taking initiative.

It applies in business, with family, with friends, with strangers, and on your own.

“Alright, Dave, I agree,” I hear you saying. “But what do I actually do?”

The First Step to Develop More Initiative

Taking initiative isn’t easy. If you don’t try, you’ll never fail, so consciously or not, many of us don’t try. But taking initiative works. It creates its own reward.

The first step is to adopt that mindset: It isn’t easy but it works. Some things you try won’t work. You’ll fall on your face sometimes. But the struggle leads to success.

Adopting a new mindset can be hard. I recommend looking up quotes from Babe Ruth on striking out or Michael Jordan on missing would-be game-winning shots, and Oprah Winfrey’s Harvard commencement speech.

I wish I could say once you get the mindset you’ll never go back, but you have to keep refreshing it. I have to remind myself of it each time I take initiative, and I’ve won and lost more times than I can remember. The good news is that the mindset does get easier and sticks a bit more each time you take initiative.

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