Happy New Year; 2012 is finally here!  We’ve spent the last few weeks in preseason mode: evaluating our jobs, planning our retirement speech, identifying how much time we want to spend doing great work and getting our tools right so we can accomplish the job. We’ve done it well and we’ve done it all with one idea in mind: this is going to be the best year of our lives.We enter this year ready to take big actions that will produce big wins?

But there’s a problem with big actions…sometimes the bigger the action seems (and/or the implication attached to it) the less likely we are to follow through.  The closer we get to taking “big” steps to create the future we desire (by doing things like quitting our jobs, following our passions, or starting our own companies) the scarier, sillier and more daunting those actions seems once the time to act is upon us.   This is one instance when bigger is not always better.

In fact, when it comes to making major moves in our lives, it is often better and easier to focus on the microaction(s).  A microaction is the smallest action one can take that will propel him/her into their future.  Rather than get stressed about changing careers at 30 and what your friends might say if you quit your good paying job, focus on the microaction: hitting send on an email that has your resignation letter attached.  Chances are, hitting send on an email is something you’ve done millions of times and so the actual act (pressing your finger to a button) is not a difficult task for you to do.  On the other hand, once the act is done, it’s done and you are off to your next season in life. While there may be complications along the way, like everything else in your past, you will figure out how to handle it.  The important thing is not trying to avoid the pain, it’s about doing what you need to do to usher yourself to the next stage of your journey.

In 2012, don’t allow your progress to get stalled because you get too overwhelmed with what seems impossible, boil things down to ittiest bittiest action you can take that will send you on your path.  Don’t overthink it.  Make 2012 the year of the microaction.  You’ve already spent 30 days strategizing; you know what the right answer is.  Now you just have to find the smallest and easiest actions you can take until you get it done.

What’s the first microaction you are going to take this year?  Leave your comments below or share with your friends in facebook or twitter (use hashtag #microaction).