BSB 110
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Speaker: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Bite-Sized Brilliance podcast. I'm your host, Dr. April Darley, and today I wanna talk to you about something that I call the Action Wave. First, I'm going to explain what the action wave is, and then give you some characteristics and personality traits of people who fall into the action waves and then give you personal examples of where you fall into each of the waves. If you don't like your wave, how you can transition and change it. All right, so let's dive in. What the heck is an action wave? I noticed personality traits of people who tend to take action quickly. I'm going to explain the action wave as if there were three different waves, a first wave, middle wave, and last wave.
Now, first wave people, they tend to have a lot of visionary characteristics. They see an idea or they think of an idea and [00:01:00] they take action very quickly to build that idea, bring it to life, launch something. Because they know that when they move quickly, they'll get data. So it's almost like this category of people, they have vision first and then the strategy comes secondary. These people tend to be highly optimistic and they have more courage than they do caution. These people often have very strong leadership characteristics or a higher desire for freedom.
and less concern with structure. They know getting it done quickly matters more than getting it done perfectly. These are some of the things that I see in first wave people. The middle wave people, slightly different mix. They are about 50, 50% with caution and courage, or they might be [00:02:00] 60 40.
They're pretty close, but they have slightly more caution than they do courage because they wanna sit back and s ee how people in the first wave do. So they are a bit more strategic than they are visionary, because they also note the idea. But they don't have quite the same amount of courage to just launch it no matter what.
People in the middle wave may have a little bit more perfectionism tendencies, or they may doubt themselves have a lack of faith, or not as confident in their skills or their resiliency as people in the first wave. First wave people believe in themselves. They believe they can get it done, and they separate themselves from failure as an emotional thing versus failure as just data, but middle wave people don't want to fail. I mean, look, let's be [00:03:00] honest, none of us really want to fail. It's not on our to-do list for the day most of us. First wave people, it might be, they have a very different view of failure. They're about, how can I fail quickly and then refine after that. Middle wave people are like, how can I avoid failure for the most part?
They may be self-aware to know that you can't completely avoid failure. You can't control everything, but people in the middle wave sure want to try. So they're a little bit more cautious. They also tend to be more practical here, and I think that caution and practicality are going hand in hand here. They do have higher levels of courage.
They do have higher levels of caution, but they are not as risk tolerant as first wave people, and so they like to sit back and let some data come in. So they are strategy first, vision second, they do see the value in the idea, but they're not willing to go for it first. [00:04:00] Now let's talk about third wave people.
I will be really honest here and say that third wave is not the place that you want to be. This is not where the most growth and evolution happens, but nevertheless. Third wave people are more cautious than they are courageous. People in this wave don't necessarily have a competence problem. They're very capable, they're very intelligent people.
And look, I believe that anybody listening to this podcast is super intelligent. Otherwise you wouldn't be here. I totally believe that you can do whatever you want to do. But the issue with third wave people is they have higher levels of scarcity. They don't believe in themselves, their skills, so they have lower levels of confidence and self-esteem.
And when you pair high scarcity, low self-esteem, you get this mix that puts you in freeze or procrastination mode. They [00:05:00] are so cautious and s o afraid of failure that they don't take baby steps until way too late. And so the third wave people are more reactive than they are proactive. And what you see in the business world is first wave people, they launch first.
They go to market first. They get the data, they refine. Second wave people, they will look at the data and then figure out their strategy from there, and then still launch. Third wave people are kind of at the mercy of the other two waves because they don't either have this strong desire or strong ambition or strong motivation to move willingly.
When you're in the third wave, you tend to be very dependent or reliant on the first wave, second wave to give you what you need. I also see a little bit more learned helplessness and victim mindset in third wave, and that tends to go [00:06:00] hand in hand with higher levels of scarcity and lower levels of confidence or optimism.
You will see higher levels of pessimism in this wave as well. Now, those are the three action waves. First, middle, and last. If you do not like which wave that you are in, if you have been able to see yourself and your normal day-to-day behavior and how you approach new things, if you have higher levels of discomfort, then you might be in middle or last. If you have a better ability to feel the discomfort and move anyway than you are likely in the first wave or in the beginning of that middle wave. Every situation is different. I know I mentioned business specifically, so there will be first wave people who absolutely will take an idea to market, launch it, get their data, and that makes them first wave.
[00:07:00] However, when it comes to making time for their friends or doing something social or learning a new skill in personal development, they might actually be last wave. Where someone whose last wave in business or financial decisions or personal development, they might actually be first wave in h anging out with their friends because they highly value personal connections and they might be more courageous when it comes to, let's say for example, you see an attractive person at the grocery store.
Even if your first wave at business, you might be last wave at going up to this person and saying, hi, how are you? But someone whose last wave in personal development or finance, they might have a lot of courage when it comes to making new friends, putting themselves out there in social settings, just not business ones or vice [00:08:00] versa.
So depending on the situation that you find yourself in, you could be in any one of these different waves, and if you want to be in first wave, it really is about cultivating your courageousness. How willing are you to feel the discomfort and move forward anyway? This is going to require a lot of self-regulation, a lot of reflection, and more personal development.
If you want to be in the first wave in a variety of situations, middle wave, also not too bad of a place to be, but similar to last wave, middle wave, people can hold on too long because the're strategy first, they might be thinking about ways to make it perfect for so long they've just missed the boat and perfection doesn't exist.
So they're almost there in terms of their courage because they feel the discomfort, but they're [00:09:00] just not moving forward fast enough. And so really think about which one of these waves that you're in. On average, if you were gonna give yourself a score on most of your activities in life, where are you going to fall, first, middle, or last?
You can split this out if you wanted to do a self-audit, split this out into business, financial, social relationships, romance, fitness, you may find that you're all over the map in these different waves. You could be an amazing business person. You could even make time for your friends.
You could even be an extrovert who is very social, but you might be last wave in physical fitness if you never exercise. You might be last wave in nutrition if you are not giving your body what it needs for optimum performance and vice versa, you could be in the last wave for taking proactive steps to improve your [00:10:00] finances or to move toward an idea or creating new habits, but you might get to the gym five days a week, and you are totally okay with introducing yourself to a very attractive stranger.
There will be variances and you won't be in the same wave category across the board generally. You might be a unicorn listening to this and rank yourself very highly across the board, but for most of us it's going to be one, two, or three. And I wanted to bring the action wave concept to you because it brings more awareness so that you can do some reflection to improve yourself and your life.
'cause that's why we're here, right? Is to improve our lives and the lives of others. What kind of impact can we make with this short little time we have on planet Earth? If that is something that you need help with, and right now you're listening to this podcast and going, _I do not like the wave that I find myself in in the majority of the _[00:11:00] _time, and I want to improve and I am ready, willing, and able to take the action steps to improve._
Because remember, this is not the thinking wave. You can't just think about, it would be nice to make these changes. It is the action wave, and you actually have to make the changes, but you don't have to do it alone. I am an expert guide at helping you find any subconscious patterns or programs that are hiding in these blind spots that are getting in your way, and that you are ready to change your story and change your life.
Right now I'm offering a complimentary consultation. It's about 20 minutes long, and we'll find out which wave you're in and where you want to be versus where you are now. We're gonna find out what that gap is and then dig into specific patterns of where you can go next, and that's what we do in my one-to-one coaching programs, *Decode* and *Amplify*. You can check all of that out, plus book your consultation at [00:12:00] aprildarley.com and I look forward to chatting with you, my friend. Until next week, goodbye.
