How to Jumpstart Your Momentum

YOU MIGHT BE FOCUSING ON THE WRONG THING.

You sit down, eager to start writing. You're ready. You feel good. You're finally going to start doing what you said you'll do a month ago.

You get ready to write the first word - then stop. There's a problem: you don't know what you want to write about.

Then your phone pinged a notification. You check it. 15 minutes - gone.

Then you start to worry. You start to doubt.

Maybe you're never going to get better at this. Maybe you're doomed to getting stuck and never seeing progress made.

Then you lose motivation. And when asked why you stopped writing, you say, "I don't have the motivation to."

WRONG!

Today I'm going to share with you a simple framework to think about your problem of getting stuck so that you can experience tangible progress - today.

"We need more demand."

When I was working with a university's events committee, one of the biggest questions I faced was: how do I get more people to participate in our programs?

What do you think was the problem I needed to fix? If you thought "Lack of demand", you'd be on the same page as most people and companies. When sales and conversions are down, the number one question in the C-suite is: "How do we increase demand?"

But what if that's the wrong question?

There are two forces we have to deal with whenever we try to build momentum:

• Fuel
• Friction

Check out this diagram!👇

The first question when getting a vehicle to move is: What is going to launch it forward? That's the fuel. That's the question "how do we increase demand?" Then the second question should be: How can we make it aerodynamic? That's the issue of friction.

Friction is the more commonly overlooked element in business and in life. The rocket's engine is obvious. The aerodynamics is not.

Let's get back to our writing example. You say "I don't have the motivation." That's the fuel. Important, but not the right focus right now. The real question is: What friction are you experiencing that is stopping you from moving forward?

In the example, we see three sources of friction: Writer's block, distractions, and self doubt.

You may have a lot of passion and desire to write. But if you remain distracted, entertain doubt, and allow obstacles to give you excuses, you will not make progress.

To jumpstart you momentum, I need to make yourself aerodynamic.

But before getting to the practicals, I want to share with you one more diagram.

A Note On Motivation And Friction

You've heard of the demand and supply curves. Now I want to introduce to you what I call the "difficulty-resistance curve."

Hold on to your seats. It's super complicated.

Ready? Here it is:

Yeah, that's graduate-level stuff right there. Like rocket science. Ha.

Here's what it means: the more difficult something is (the friction), the greater the resistance to being motivated.

So you can either try to have enough fuel to cross the motivation threshold or reduce the friction. It's good to do both. But reducing friction is actually easier and yields greater results per increment than increasing thrust does.

Your motivation is so fragile and fickle. You need to create the perfect environment for it - like a greenhouse. These two pictures, of the rocket and the difficulty-resistance curve, will help you navigate "motivation cultivation" with greater clarity.

Now for the practicals

Here is a simple process you can put into action today:

Step 1: Start Moving

If you find yourself stationary at this point, just start moving. But at first, don't just do it hoping to reach your goals just yet. Do it to find points of friction. Be mindful of areas of resistance.

Step 2: Do A "Friction Audit"

Now that you're moving and meeting resistance, do a friction audit. What excuses are you giving yourself? What distractions are you struggling with? What hurts and wounds are preventing you from taking a risk?

It helps to journal about them. At least articulate them in some way. Friends and partners help a lot here too.

Point 3: Tackle The Bottleneck With The Greatest Impact

Now prioritize. According to impact and difficulty. Then ask yourself: which bottleneck will yield the greatest results when fixed (but not too difficult to paralyze me)?

It's funny that the most significant solution is often a very simple one. So don't overthink it. Identify it and execute it immediately.

Final thoughts...

I need to get to the gym. But man, do I have excuses.

I don't have time. I'm too tired. Gyms are expensive. Maybe when I have more stability.

Okay okay. Fuel and friction... Fuel and friction.

Fuel: I want to feel good about myself. I want to see progress. I want to build discipline. (I want a gf :P) And I have an accountability partner pestering me lol.

Not much I can do to increase that much more.

Biggest bottleneck: I mismanage my time and waste lots of ours doing nothing on my computer.

Solution: Start deleting time-consuming apps and planning my day in advance.

Let's do this. You with me?

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