Issue #64: Momentum Starts with a Single Moment

Let’s walk you through this statement and how I helped a client move out of an exhausting state.

I’ve heard this dude say different versions of the same thing many times.

“I’m just so flat out. Work is hectic. I’ve got so much I have to do. I can’t get to the top of it.”

The short of it was this: he is busy. He has a lot on. He’s finding it hard to find the time he wants for his family and to actually slow down and do the work he wants to on his business.

You might have this exact challenge: life demands a lot of you.

There are so many hours, and you have a lot to do.

The basic logic says this:

Keep getting shit done, and eventually you’ll get past it. 

But don't slow down. I can’t afford that luxury.

If I could just find more time…

You get stuck in a loop of action.

More action.

Get all the things done, then you can breathe.

This thing is, it rarely works.

Every to-do list keeps getting more added to it.

And onwards it goes.

Continually adding to that internal pressure you carry around like a fucking heavy scarf.

Where do you think it is? Under the bed? What are you, the Time Lord? 

Time just exists.

Stop looking for it and start using it better.

What you can do is choose what you do with it.

There must be a better way.

Great news: There is.

Breaking the momentum of BUSY

I was sitting with one of my Zeus Inner Circle clients in an intensive half-day session.

The dude is kicking so many goals in so many areas, especially at home with his young family.

Yet, when it comes to his business, he often feels like there is no room to breathe. Just constant shit flying at him that he must do.

All of that makes it hard for him to even see the great things elsewhere. It’s a brutal loop that many guys get stuck in during the pursuit of providing for their families and creating a meaningful future.

We miss the roses right in front of us.

For you, it may not be business, but in your job, whatever it is, or something in your family life.

Stay in action mode and you’ll get there…

But when a pattern like that continues without change, it tells us that, if nothing else, we need to zoom out and look at it differently.

Yes, he has shit to get done.

Does he have to do it all himself? That is a valid question. Hard to ask if you’re so deep in narrow-focus mode.

Could there be a better way to manage everything? Same point.

Patterns are telling us something. We must look in there.

It was at this stage he voiced the idea that he feels like he has “no momentum”.

Well, what is a pattern but the momentum of a certain behaviour?

I asked him, “Momentum with what?”

Him: “Behaviours I would like to have going consistently: meditation, training, surfing, and just space to breathe and be a human more.”

Ok then.

So I asked, “What do you have momentum with then?”

His response: “Busyness, being full and hectic. And overcoming it feels out of reach.”

This is where I saw the avenue we needed that might help you, too.

When looking at his situation, it was clear that he was in need of reprieve and thinking reprieve could only be once he had cleared all the work.

In his head, he needed to be fully past his current hectic workload to break the momentum of being busy and full.

Here’s the thing:

We don’t overcome big consistent momentum like that in one fell swoop.

We do it bit by bit. Day by day.

You can’t climb a mountain in one giant leap. You take consistent, unsexy steps.

But single steps you must take. And take and take. One after the other.

For my client, reprieve doesn't have to be 'there is nothing on my plate'. It can be moments of stillness, moments of peace, moments of joy and clarity and a calm nervous system.

After all…

“Momentum is made of (many) moments.” 

When you choose your moments better, you determine your momentum.

His task is to continue getting shit done in his business. However, if he wants to also experience a different momentum, it can’t wait until the crazy ends. It likely never will - because that mode simply justifies more of itself.

He can create another momentum in small moments.

If he mains in flat-out chaos moments, he is choosing that.

If he wants more space and peace, he must choose moments of it.

So, we set out to make a plan of small moments where he can carve out - choose to prioritise - space. Giving himself moments of peace.

Start with ONE DAY.

One day where he doesn't open his email and get into work mode until he steps out the door and gets on his way to work (on the bus).

Sure, one day isn’t momentum, but it’s when we add them up that momentum builds.

Think of this:

A friend of mine, Branden Collinsworth, has just ticked over 730 days of consistent training. That’s two full years of training every day - never missing one.

That’s a lot of momentum. Would you agree?

If he now missed one, would that stop his momentum?

It would impact it, but it doesn’t stop it. He still has all that momentum.

If he misses one day and then continues again the next day as he has, he’s now 731 of 732 days.

One does a little, but it isn’t everything.

To truly stop that momentum, he’d have to miss training day after day. Consistently.

When he had trained just one day, that’s not much.

100 days is something.

500 even more.

730 is quite simply, fucking impressive.

All of that coming from one day at a time.

And the same is true for creating the momentum you want to create.

One day at something is usually easy. But stacking 183 of them together (six months), say, that’s harder.

That’s where the challenge comes in.

But where there is great challenge, there is great reward. 

If my client chooses one small thing to do one day - a moment - and commits to doing it every day, he’ll build momentum in a desirable direction.

The payoff comes when moments stack upon themselves.

And a moment is much easier to take on than a mountain.

You can control one moment.

When you see this, when you action this, you empower yourself. All of this, a moment, is in your control.

I’m interested to hear from you - how does this land for you?

What comes up here?

Has this spurned anything in you?

Is there momentum you’d like to be past? And one you’d like to start?

Remember:

Don’t look at the big mountain in front of you. Look at the first step. Break it down into simple, doable moments.

That’s how you build momentum.

Mike