How To Actually Walk The Talk
The 4 steps I take to turn my words into action.
I’m a writer.
My work revolves around reading, thinking and typing out words.
Currently, my interests include climate change and cryptocurrency.
I know; they are two very different areas of knowledge. But I’m seeing a potential bridge between them.
In terms of climate change, the lifestyle change I’ve made has been individualistic — I stopped eating meat and I don’t often buy things in plastic.
In terms of cryptocurrency, I’ve only barely scratched the surface. I’ve read as much as I can about decentralized finance and I essentially know how to start investing.
But I keep giving myself excuses like “I don’t know enough yet” or “I don’t have funds that I can afford to lose”.
I know these are just excuses because technically I can earn cryptocurrency without investing, as I have written for my client.
Plus I am now a certified Climate Reality Leader who has been trained (virtually) by Al Gore and his team of mentors.
Regardless of my doubts, if I look at my situation rationally, I’m actually ready to take the next daunting step.
Walking The Talk
It’s easy to say what you intend to do.
It’s more difficult to actually do it.
To change your lifestyle, habit or just a small part of your everyday life, you would need mental strength.
And then you would need the courage to take the first step.
Before going vegan, I remember absorbing the knowledge and getting used to the idea for at least 6 months.
It takes me some time to get used to an idea and then to implement it in my life.
But I know it’s possible and I know I will do it, eventually.
So how should I walk the talk as a climate action activist and a (sustainable) crypto user?
4 Critical Steps to Turn My Words into Reality
1. Determine “Why” and Goals
I struggled with my identity and purpose for the longest time. I thought, what’s the point of doing anything when we’re bound to destroy ourselves? But I’ve managed to convince myself that life is a constant struggle and human nature has a survival instinct. I may not know exactly why (perhaps to live a better next life) but that fact remains based on history and existing knowledge.
So I’ve sat myself down and thought of why I want to go on this climate action route and why I want to use, earn and invest in cryptocurrency. The exact whys are for my eyes only but I can share that the big why is for me to live a fulfilling life and to embrace better opportunities.
There’s no other way to do this other than sitting down with your thoughts and be very honest with yourself.
2. Break Down Goals into Actionable Steps
Once you’ve written down your goals, you need to break them down.
Say my goal is to give a presentation on the climate crisis via YouTube live.
How do I prepare the presentation? What’s the content? What info should I highlight? What software do I need to share my slides?
Then, organize the answer to the questions into ordered steps from start to end.
3. Set Realistic Deadlines
When is the date of my presentation? Decide that and work backwards.
Give yourself a realistic time frame to complete each action step that you’ve listed.
Set a reminder for those deadlines. You can schedule it on Google Calendar and set notifications. This is so that you don’t miss out anything and that there’s a sense of urgency to your goal.
4. Just Bloody Do It
Being prepared is great but what’s the point of all the preparation when you’re not going to start anything?
You won’t make the plan perfect. There’s not going to be a perfect time.
The stars will align when you decide to align them.
So just start.
Declare It to Others
One important component of walking the talk is to declare it.
Either to yourself or to the people around you.
If you’re the kind who can keep yourself accountable without needing anyone to give you a push, then you can keep your plans to yourself.
But I think that most of us need some kind of accountability. We need our actions to be acknowledged, monitored and criticized to potentially produce the best results.
So if you’re like me who need to be held accountable, tell your plans to at least one other person.
Alternatively, you could just make your plans super public by posting your journey online. Social accountability can be powerful because even though you think that people online do not seem to care, they would at least notice. And so if you turn back against your words, in their mind you’d be that person without much integrity.
You Can Do This
I know it’s difficult to walk the talk.
But if there’s a will there’s surely a way.
Just keep your focus on your goals, hold on to your “why”, and take one step at a time.
