I was a Tony Robbins fan. I read his books and bought some of his tapes. Some of it is good stuff, and I paid attention to him for a couple of years.

I incorporated much of what he said into the way I run my life. It helped.

Then I moved on. Tony mailed me invitations to seminars, offered to sell me more stuff, and kept after me for a while. I ignored him.

Why?

Because I was busy doing stuff. I was taking action. I had learned the lessons he was teaching and moved on.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way everyone rolls.

I was talking to a woman recently. She’s a lawyer practicing family law, and she’s a self-help consumer. She’s highly motivated to…consume more self-help. Sadly, the self-help message isn’t prodding her to improve her life: it’s only prodding her to buy more self-help stuff. That’s not good.

If you’re a self-help junkie, it’s time to put the messages you’ve been receiving to use. Stop consuming self-help, and start doing what needs to be done.

The secret is not ideas, motivation, and positive feelings. The secret is action. You’ve got do something for good things to happen to you. Reading about taking action doesn’t cut it. The same is true of listening and watching. You need to be doing.

If you want to grow your practice, build your network, advertise, and get visible. If you want a better-managed practice, start doing one-to-ones, giving feedback, and coaching. If you want more efficiency, start building systems, employing technology, and hiring better people. Improvement requires action.

It’s time to pack up your Tony Robbins stuff and whatever else you’ve bought and give it to Goodwill. Put it in a box, and drop it off at the charity’s door. It will pass it along to someone else who needs that information.

Then get back to the office and get to work. Take action, execute, and check things off the list. You’re good enough now: you don’t need more self-improvement. Take what you’ve got, and put it to work.