Featured Image Credit: Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash
Imagine being unstoppable.
Everything you do works perfectly.
You constantly get things done.
Any obstacles show up, you deal with them, avoid them or push right through them. You are such consistent people who can set their watches to your routines and production. If you say you want to post three Youtube videos a week, it is guaranteed to happen rain or shine, in sickness or health. You determine to work out Monday through Friday, then you are there on time and crushing it.
It isn't easy. I struggle with this level of consistency, but this level is what the top-tier performers do. In creative circles, at high levels and local ones.
Millions of people running local businesses don't take a day off. They can't. They push through discomfort, sickness, and difficulties—family struggles, personal demons, and still no stopping.
Whatever the obstacle, they continue to push through it.
My Mom told me about her dad, a man I had never met. He lived in the Phillippines, rough and rugged life. A life he was fortunate to experience for 97 years. Every day he got up before the sun and worked the farm. He was tending to various crops and taking care to set up the property for others before he headed off to his makeshift shop. There he sold various goods, foods, and other knick-knacks. Then returned when the sun headed into hiding, preparing for the next day.
He worked every day up until the final week of his life. It takes incredible commitment. The exciting thing is incredible commitment can become just another day once you get enough of them under your belt.
It doesn't always take the form of challenging tasks. It isn't about grinding it out in dark crawl spaces or climbing telephone poles in rainstorms. It could be as simple as making those few videos a week, writing an article every few days for online publications. It is not always necessary to work every single day and never rest. The key is consistency.
Consistency opens the door to an unstoppable momentum. Momentum is the goal.
Momentum. In its simplest form is Newton's First Law of Physics, a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Put into terms of work, the more you work, the harder it will be for you to stop.
When I was really into going to the gym (I'm not a significant weightlifter type), after going so consistently, it became nearly impossible for me not to go. Days I missed felt off-kilter and strange to me. It can be the same with any consistent habit. Have you ever had a consistent activity, and you miss it one time? For me, there is a weird unease accompanying those missed moments.
Movement creates opportunities. It is the motion that drives action. While certain levels of success may require elements of luck, timing, and connections, none of those things are possible if you do nothing.
But momentum also works both ways. It is a fantastic benefit, a wind pushing your sails to new horizons when it works. When it is a bad habit or harmful behavior, your wind becomes an anchor holding you beneath the waves.
So how can you create this momentum in your life?
You Are What You Constantly Do
New Year's Eve is a fun and festive time. Everyone partying, saying goodbye to the last year, sometimes goodbye, other times good riddance. Once the sounds and songs fade away, the lights blur into the dark before reemerging into the day, and once the drinks have passed through the system, it is a new year.
It is so common for people to fail at New Year's resolutions it is a consistent joke about the gym being busy for the first two weeks before being empty again. There are many reasons, but the main one is it is not who you are. You spent most of the year not going to the gym, not creating a diet, not working on your craft, and you expect to be able to switch at the stroke of midnight to start the new year.
At a minimum, resolutions should begin in December; this gives you time to establish a habit.
Image Credit: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
We are what we constantly do. Some people are considered alcoholics and drug addicts. They often don't believe they have a problem, but you become a drug addict by constantly taking drugs. You become a lazy person by consistently being lazy.
A person doing dangerous or dumb things gets known for those things. If you are always barbecuing, you are the BBQ person.
How do you establish the person you want to be? Small, consistent steps. If you want to be the person who starts a workout program on New Year's Day, you should start by going to the gym or working out one or two days a week. Once you master this, increase it. Simple.
Want to be a writer? Write—every day.
There is a famous story; although I heard about Seinfield, it has been said about other people in different disciplines. The story goes Seinfeld got a one-year calendar as a wall decal. Every day he would write a joke. He would X out the day. After a few days, you have a chain going. Once the chain gets going, you focus on not breaking the chain.
The more the calendar fills with X's, the more you'll enjoy seeing them and completing the tasks. The goal is to do the action almost on autopilot eventually. Suddenly the missed days stain the beautiful mosaic of your daily efforts. The blank spots become an irritant.
The calendar technique may not work for everyone, but it has been a great help to others.
Part of your consistent action could be little wins in the morning before the day gets away from you, as it tends to happen more often than we'd like to admit.
Reframe Your Expectations
We don't want to waste our time working hard on projects, presentations, or promotions nobody uses, relies upon, or is inspired by, so we would instead not try if we perceive it lacking value. Even if you don't see its value doesn't mean others won't.
In 2010 Business Insider had this to say about a now well-known product, "It's a big yawn" and "we're not nearly as impressed as were after Jobs unveiled the iPhone three years ago."
Of course, they were referring to the iPad.
"A big iPhone that can run iPhone apps, iPad apps, iTunes media, iBook books, and the Web."
They added,
"Apple fans hoping for the next revolution -- or investors hoping for the company's next iPhone -- should be disappointed. "
In their first year, they sold over 15 million units, and although Apple fans are diehard and will buy anything, tablets have become popular across multiple walks of life. Kids use them for creative games and mind-numbing entertainment. Businesses use tablets to conduct transactions easier and on the go. Freelancers work on them; people hold client meetings on them.
Many professionals didn't see value in a giant iPhone. No one knows what things will succeed and what things are going to fail.
Multi-billion dollar corporations do significant market research and invest heavily in product launches, and still, many of them don't reach the heights the executives believe they would. Same with many films over just the past decade. Movies with significant backing, top-tier producers, and the best actors can still struggle to find an audience.
How often do you see people go against the specific advice of succeeding in some industry only to find a way to make it work?
How often do we see a heralded next big thing completely fail?
While it is natural to have expectations, do beat yourself up if you don't hit massive success. You may want a platinum record on your first release but only sell 100 copies; it happens. Keep working at the things you enjoy and keep learning from each new iteration of what you create.
If you run a store, keep working on marketing techniques to increase revenue, specials, and sales. Trial and error is the most common way people find the path they need to reach their goals. You don't have to temper your expectations; instead, give them time to develop by shifting expectations from your first blog posts being a viral hit and launchpad to mainstream success and instead focusing on doing the work and improving with each version.
Recommit Everyday
Image Credit: Stefan Cosma on Unsplash
Motivation and inspiration don't last forever. The puppy love phase of pursuing goals, getting a new job, or finding a passion can end abruptly. You may have found a calling, are enamored with the work you're doing, then one day you are exhausted. You are tired and maybe stressed out. Things aren't working as they had been.
It happens.
We hit stumbling blocks, or the love fades away. You have to recommit yourself to the high performance you want every day. Spend the morning reminding yourself why you are doing it and why you are pursuing this goal.
Keep those motivational reminders nearby for a quick hit of inspiration when you feel like you don't have what it takes to succeed.
Start the night before. Set up your day to maximize your achievements. You can kill your momentum by wasting the mornings setting up the workday. If you pre-plan the night before, you can more easily come out of the gate, roll out of bed, and start notching those little wins.
If your momentum stops in the middle of the day, take a moment to refocus. Maybe you may need to take a moment to regain your composure and then begin again if you find yourself losing steam at points in the day-use, those tiny spaces in time to recommit. Reaffirm your commitment and regain the motivation.
As mentioned above, there isn't a hard and fast rule. There are other ways you may find work better for you. These were the most helpful to me when I needed some guidance. Find ways to track your energy drains, energizing activities, and areas you can improve. Above all else, don't forget to celebrate your little winds.
What's Next?
The more you build this momentum, the more you'll want to continue. Once you find success, you'll want to keep on experiencing it. Obstacles will come and go; it wouldn't be as rewarding if everything came too easy.
Momentum feels good.
Be consistent in your endeavors. Whatever your path, be consistent in how you act and the actions you perform. You become what you do and the actions you take. If you constantly lie, you become a liar. If you are always around to help a friend, you become reliable.
Understand you are what you constantly do and try to figure out and track what you constantly do. There is a saying I've heard, "Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future." I like to take it a step further; show me your efforts, and I'll show you your future.
Not all efforts are equal. Learn to act on the efforts with more long-term potential.
Reframe your expectations of the activities you are performing. Don't always think about it in terms of dollars. Of course, it matters how you divide your time, and you want to make it worthwhile, but it is difficult to say what will be the more considerable success over time. Highly anticipated releases have flopped, while underwhelming products have surpassed expectations. The world may surprise you from time to time.
No amount of motivation lasts forever. It may be necessary to drink from the well of inspiration more often than you think. Don't get discouraged at challenges and setbacks. Instead, recommit yourself to the cause each day, sometimes multiple times a day.
Our brains get used to things reasonably quickly, so eventually, those things you found hard to do suddenly become your baseline. Now you can build on it and improve. Momentum always multiplies; may you find success.