Last week at the RMIT Business Plan Competition awards night (where I won a major prize ;)), keynote speaker, Thankyou founder Daniel Flynn, spoke about the company’s long and arduous journey to success.
Long story short – it took Thankyou years to gain traction in the retail market.
As a small bottled water startup, they were largely ignored by the major retailers, until their story was featured on various TV and radio shows. And once the media started to take notice, so did the general public. And the company quickly picked up momentum.
Of course, there’s a lot more to the story, but Daniel mentioned momentum as being key to driving their success.
In much the same way, a lack of momentum often prevents us from taking action and making shit happen in our own lives.
When we stop, our minds and bodies also stagnate. We get blockages. Ideas stop flowing. Our task list and projects build up and up until they seem unsurmountable.
For example, let’s say you get ‘too busy’ to go to the gym, so you stop exercising. A couple of months on, it’s incredibly hard going back to it. You’ve put on a bit of weight, you know you’re not as strong as you were, and carving out time in your busy schedule just seems too hard. But then the longer you leave it, the fatter and weaker you get, and getting back to your once-fit self seems like an impossible task.
Now take this blog.
It’s been over 3 months since I last posted, and I am finding the longer I leave it, the harder it is to write again.
A month after my last post, I thought “Oh, I really need to write another post; I’ve been so slack – but because I’ve made my readers wait so long for this one, it had better be good…”
…so I’d put extra pressure on myself to make it THE MOST AMAZING LIFE-CHANGING BLOG POST YOU’LL EVER READ.
Which isn’t hard at all, right?
So I’d procrastinate. And put it off again. And put it off some more. And next thing you know, it’s late October and my once-a-week blog habit is looking nigh impossible to resume.
And I know it’s not a time issue. When I created my 21 Day Confidence Course, I wrote a 800-1000 word blog post A DAY for 21 days. And yes, they were ALL GOLD. And if you don’t believe me, sign up to see for yourself 😉
The reason I could do it was because I had momentum. Hell, some days I didn’t know what the post was going to be about. I hadn’t planned that far ahead. But because I had been writing days on end, my writing habit was in place and my ideas and words were flowing freely from my head to the keyboard. The more I did it, the easier it got.
So I know my lack of blogging is not a ‘time’ issue. I’ve proved to myself that I CAN write excellent content on a regular basis. I just have to stick to it, and keep up momentum. Because I don’t want this blog to die. I care too much about it, and you too, dear reader 🙂
Christina’s tips for gaining momentum:
1. If you’re stuck, force yourself to do SOMETHING. If you’re writing, just write a load of crap; the first thing that comes to mind. You can edit that shit later. If you wanna lose weight, you don’t HAVE to go to the gym. Dance around the house to some fun music, do some lunges in the kitchen, go run with your dog. Just MOVE. This is a small, but important first step.
2. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Perfectionism will KILL any momentum you have. Repeat after me: “Done is better than perfect. Done is better than perfect.” Write it on a post-it note. Stick it on your mirror.
3. Once you’ve done the first ‘thing’ (or taken the first step), don’t wait too long until the next step. Remember, it will get easier the more you do it. Keep up the energy and the good feeling of completion. Like if you’ve just finished a fun run, sign up for another race immediately after, while your enthusiasm is high. That way, you’ll be encouraged to keep training.
4. If you’re REALLY committed, set yourself a challenge. For example, last year I did an insane 100 burpees-a-day challenge to stay fit while travelling. My friend JimmyD has set himself a 100 day blogging challenge, which I think is incredible. Another mate, James Tew, recently did a smoothie challenge. Set yourself a challenge, or even better, rope in a ‘momentum mate’ (ha!) to do it with you.
Now the BIG test is – will I follow my own advice and keep momentum up on this blog? Watch this space to find out. In the meantime – what’s something you’d like to gain momentum with? Or do you have your own tips for picking up momentum? Email me cc(at)christinacanters.com or leave a comment below 🙂
