Recognizing Momentum, Finding Your Stride

Recognizing Momentum

On this show…we are getting in a groove. Not their groove, or their groove, but Yours. It’s time to settle in and find your stride. Have you had enough of the high, highs, or the low, lows? Been on a rollercoaster of inspiration and productivity? Keep putting off what you want because you just aren’t sure how to get started or when? It’s time we recognize momentum and use it to find our stride. So many of us start the year with loads of great ideas and good intentions only to run out of steam before we ever really get started. Why should we be busting out of the starting gate on pace to hit the finish line with record speed? How about we adopt a healthy balance and a maintainable pace that will get us further down the track to success. No more shotgun starts only to find that you’ve come up short.

Oh, I’m just as guilty! If I had a $1 or rather if YOU had a $1 for every time I said I need to join a gym or start exercising, you’d be counting your millions about now. I’m a driven goal achiever but I can’t seem to find the momentum to make exercising a reality. Find something you like, make it part of your day, 28 days to make a habit…yeah yeah yeah – I’ve heard it all before. Applying it and making it stick is what I’m missing. 

I remember every August before I started back to school I would say to my best friend, “I’m going to be more reserved this year”. You see, I never once got a positive mark for conduct. I tried, really I did, but I couldn’t seem to control my mouth. Not what I said but how ofter, the volume, the timing….never appropriate. My first-grade teacher said: She talks more than I do and I teach the class! So every year I would start off being quiet, rejecting the impulse to add in my two cents or offer a funny zinger. And every year, I would fail. 

See I think going against your grain might be impossible. Instead of a leopard changing his spots what if he just chose a different background? I take back what I might have said in the past “Nothing is impossible?” In this context, that may not be true. It’s not that you can’t do it but do you have the desire and will to do it. I’m sure if I really put my all into it, I could become a runner. But I don’t possess the desire or will to make it happen. 

Let’s explore these ideas as well as what it takes to harness your momentum and find your stride. It might be changing the way you look at these things altogether. 

William Cho starts us off with: Knowing This Difference Will Give You Everything You Desire — Wish vs. Desire found at mystudentvoices.com

Coley Lane Bouschet shares: Motivation Vs. Momentum: How To Use Both To Become A Consistent Powerhouse found at lifegoalsmag.com

Marissa Bracke explains: Why Keeping Momentum Requires Getting Perspective found on her blog, marissabracke.com

KEY HIGHLIGHTS: 

  1. When you understand the difference between a wish and a desire, you will find success in your endeavors
  2. Real lessons are learned throughout the journey
  3. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve
  4. What started as a little movement gathered into momentum and transformed into motivation
  5. Intrinsic motivation is going to keep us more fulfilled long-term. It’s going to give us a sense of meaning to our lives, and that’s what we should lean on to keep fueling our motivation
  6. One of the greatest parts of a momentum strategy is that it builds off of one small action and allows you to coast down from there
  7. When you compare where you are right now with where you ultimately want to be, you typically wind up fixating on the distance between those two points
  8. It’s hard to maintain momentum on your journey when you’re losing hope of ever completing it
  9. To change your momentum, change your perspective
  10.  Hitting those smaller goals gives you a boost in energy and confidence, and that, in turn, keeps your momentum going

CHALLENGE: before you head to the starting gate, take a moment and explore your motivation. Is this something YOU desire and if so, map out your steps to gain momentum. Finding a stride with a pace that suits your life is paramount in maintaining a healthy balance. 

I Know YOU Can Do It!