This week’s episode is all about the power of momentum.
Consider a train getting ready to start its journey, but there is one small brick in front of its wheel.
That one brick will stop it from starting.
Now, consider a train that has built up momentum and there’s a brick wall in front of it.
Guess what?
The train will break through that brick wall. No problem.
Join me for this episode, as we discuss ways that you too, can tackle that brick wall.
Here are the highlights
(00:34) Powering through
(03:15) Which train are you?
(04:55) The early bird
(06:48) Your mental block
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Transcript
Hi, and welcome to the Daring to Leap podcast. I'm your host, Loree Philip. I'm so excited to dive into this week's episode with you. So, in this week's episode, we're going to discuss the power of momentum and how you can use it to get stuff done.
Loree Philip:Let's get started. I was at a conference last year where this idea of momentum, the power of momentum, or lack thereof, really hit me. I'm going to illustrate this with a story. If you consider a train, and when a train starts out from being stopped and there is just one small brick in front of its wheel, it has a really hard time getting going.
Loree Philip:That one brick can stop it from starting. And if you consider the same exact train that has built up, that momentum is in full motion, and you put a brick wall in front of it, guess what? The train will break right through that brick wall. No problem. The difference here is, when the train is stopped, it can barely handle one small brick. And when the train is in full motion, it can tackle a brick wall. And. And this kind of hit me because I've seen myself in both situations, I've seen myself completely stopped in feeling like that one little task on my desk is impossible to get going.
Loree Philip:I've seen myself in full motion, just tackling things left and right, no big deal. And I'm the same person. And so I really wanted to get this idea of momentum and figure out a way how we can leverage it in our careers to be able to systematically be in momentum, to put ourselves in momentum, to understand when we're not, and how to get back on that moving train.
Loree Philip:Another example of this story is kind of the saying if you want something done, give it to a busy person. And there's so much truth in that because busy people have so much going on. They're just doing, doing, doing, doing. They're in motion, they're in momentum. We know it will get done. We have all been there. We've been the train that is just about to start and is having a really hard time getting started and seeing the big project, the big challenge, is almost impossible.
Loree Philip:The key I want you to know here is that notice that you're stopped. And also notice that once you move forward, taking one action at a time, you will start to get traction and the bigger task will start to look less daunting.
Loree Philip:Ideas will start to pop in, solutions will become more clear and obstacles will show up. Still, they don't go away, but you'll be able to tackle them with more ease when you're in this place of momentum. So I think we can all agree that that's the place we'd like to be. Obviously, there's room for relaxation and taking a break, but in terms of getting things done, having movement and traction in our work, momentum is a place where we can do it easier.
Loree Philip:So how can you use momentum in your day to day to amplify your productivity? So I have a couple of thoughts on this to bring this into your day to day so that you can start leveraging momentum as a tool to help you tackle those big projects or even the smaller ones.
Loree Philip:So the first thing I'd like to suggest here is start your day every day with some amount of momentum. And what I mean by this is get one or two things done in the morning and watch as your energy shifts into this doing mode. You start to get traction. You made that phone call you didn't want to make and then you're willing to make the next one. You started typing up that report and before you knew it, it's done. And when you start your day this way, it starts your whole day in this energy of momentum.
Loree Philip:I notice this for my recently after the new year, because I was all gung ho about getting more productive in the new year. And one morning I decided I was going to have all the time to do all the things instead of plopping myself on the couch and slowly drinking some coffee and reading a book. And I do like to do that, but this particular day I was like, I'm going to be productive. So I got up, I have some coffee and I just started getting some stuff done.
Loree Philip:And I will tell you, I got so much done that day because if I would have plopped down on the couch and just kind of ease into my day, it would have been much more difficult for me to then say, I'm going to get up and I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. I would just be in this slower, more relaxed pace, which I believe is useful and I love to relax and do that kind of thing, but it just kind of made me remember this power of momentum. If you intentionally use it when you want to to make your day more productive.
Loree Philip:The second thing I'd like you to consider is noticing when you're stuck. Notice when that next task seems impossible, or you just don't feel like getting it done and you're kind of procrastinating, or you're distracting yourself. When you're in this moment of stuckness start to notice it. If you decide for yourself that you want to be productive, but you're not, what I recommend to you is to take one very small action. Something doable just gets started. It could be anything from open up your email, start the email. It could be open up the PowerPoint slides, start looking at some examples. Just take one small action toward what you need to do and then take the next one. And then the next one. Don't worry about the bigger project, the bigger picture.
Loree Philip:At this point, I think it's just important to start to get yourself moving forward. And then you'll see it's like a snowball effect. The ball will get rolling, things will start happening, you'll start getting into the flow and start to feel more inspired to do your work.
Loree Philip:This is what I have for you on the power of momentum. I hope you can start pulling this into your day-to-day and use it when you feel like being productive. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, I would love for you to subscribe, leave a review and share it with a friend. Until next time. bye.