There are so many things that can happen in the day to day life with regard to plans. Sometimes we achieve all of our goals, more often though, we veer off track and don't complete everything we set out to. Consider the goal of getting in the best shape of your life. Some days you'll eat well and feel great. This leads to a lot of momentum, that can be used to push your efforts further. Other days you'll eat garbage, causing a desire to get better and this can be used as a turning point moving forward. No matter what happens, it's always possible to use the energy to stay on track or course correct to get back on track.
Everybody has times where everything is working out. Maybe you nail a series of job interviews, or your website finally gets more popular, whatever it is, doing well feels great. Taking that momentum and using it to build on is vital to making a good thing great. Mark Zuckerberg could’ve made a neat, little Harvard-only social network, but he, and a great team, kept building on the positive energy and made Facebook the largest social network in the world. The iterative process of continually moving forward is where real progress happens, forging good habits and practices through building on the positive momentum.
Moving back to the goal of getting in the best shape of your life touched on earlier. Without getting on a roll and staying vigilant, it’s going to be difficult to get in good shape. It’s hard to improve physically without working out and eating a healthy diet. Good physical shape and health are derived directly from working hard and consistently eating well. The healthier you get the stronger the positive momentum gets, making it easier to achieve the end goal. Once the goal is reached, the momentum is more often than not going to keep you working hard to retain and maybe even improve. Success is a strong motivator.
I’ll admit it, things don’t always go the way you want them. Sometimes it rains, sometimes the Cubs lose, but the world keeps going around us. Never feel down about not doing what you set out to do, put that energy towards getting back on track. The struggle makes success that much sweeter. This year I’ve set out to start learning music theory so I can really start growing as a guitarist. It’s April now and I’ve only read about 10 pages of the theory book I have sitting on my desk. Clearly, I haven’t put in the effort to achieve this goal. Rather than sit here and dread the work I haven’t done, I’m going to open up the book as soon as I finish writing this post. This instance will turn into some positive momentum that can be used to become a better guitarist.
No matter what happens with your goals, use it. Good events can be used to build up a strong positive momentum that becomes a habit. Once this state is achieved, the momentum becomes too strong to stop. When bad outcomes occur, there’s no reason to get upset. Rather than get disappointed about what has happened, turn it around into something better. The past is fated to be the way it is; the future is what you make it. Positive momentum starts with a single action.
Published on 4/7/2016 7:28:51 PM