How many times as entrepreneurs do we come across a new challenge or area where we need to start from scratch and learn on the fly?
If you’ve started a business on a budget then you have probably experienced what it’s like being the marketing, SEO, sales, and funnel expert all by yourself; and it’s no secret that taking on so many new things at once can be overwhelming, confusing and difficult at times.
Therefore, if you are or ever have been an entrepreneur, I’m sure you can relate to the feeling of being out of your depth, not knowing how you’ll make it over the next mountain.
Well, the hack to success we’ll look at today will help you never feel like this again. Using just a few very simple techniques and strategies you can drastically reduce the stress and anxiety you experience when tackling a new area in your business, or even life for that matter. In fact, the truth about this hack is that it can be applied to any task or part of life, whether it’s getting motivated for going out on a run, writing a blog post or creating a webinar for your new e-course.
Without further ado let’s jump into it!
The Secret “Hack” To Success: Momentum
What is ‘Momentum’?
‘Momentum’ is literally to be in motion; to be moving towards a destination we want to reach - a goal perhaps. Put another way, it’s the surge of energy you feel when you are making progress towards a desired end-point and it can be extremely powerful when leveraged in your professional (and personal) life. We all know the feeling: it’s a rush we crave for in times when we simply can’t seem to get going, and other times is one that can leave you positively buzzing to do more. What a dream; to be so mesmerized and engrossed in one’s work that you don’t want to stop. Let’s look at a couple of examples of momentum in play. If one day you decide to pick up a guitar for the first time, it is almost certain that you won’t be very good at creating music to start with. This is often frustrating and can lead to people throwing in the towel early on. It feels like you aren’t making any progress and you can’t get into it. But what happens if you persevere? Well, if you keep playing you’ll improve, be able to produce better music and it’ll feel good. You’ll have accomplished something and made visible progress towards your end-goal. And guess what? You won’t want to stop. You’ll want to chase that feeling of progression, development, motion… of momentum! You can apply this to any area of life; the logic will always stay the same because it is encoded into the reward centers of our brains. This part is where dopamine is released and is closely linked to our memory and motivation. Take a business setting for example, let’s say for argument’s sake you need to learn how to build a funnel for a new Fintech startup you’re a part of, yet have no clue how to go about it. Before you begin you aren’t moving at all; you may be demotivated because you haven’t started the journey towards your goal and it seems like such a huge task when you think about it as a whole. Though, once you begin, perhaps by reading your first article, purchasing an e-course or watching a guru’s YouTube channel, you’ll soon find you’re comfortable with the new vocabulary, software and strategies, and it’ll feel good. You’ll have accomplished something - you’re out of the blocks. Soon, you’ll reach a tipping point where you aren’t out of your depth anymore, where you’ve learnt enough of the basics to paddle to stay afloat. The hardest work is done and now you can begin to get into the flow. Before you know it, you’ll have finished your funnel, you won’t ever remember struggling to get going in the first place and you’ll be raring to go on the next one. Why? You did the hardest part by knuckling down and getting the steepest part of the learning curve out the way. You reached a feeling of relative comfort with the area you are tackling so it became easier to progress and attain the hit of dopamine you’re so naturally after. To sum up, every mountain seems insurmountable from its base. Especially with the relatively recent flux of knowledge with the advent of the internet and social media, it just seems like too much work to ever become an expert in any field, both professional and personal. But after we take those first few steps we realize that everything is a process, and we just need uninterrupted momentum to propel ourselves over even the highest of mountains. Now let’s take a look at how to take advantage of this law!4 Tips for Harnessing Momentum
Disclaimer: For those reading who have come across any of these tips in other settings before, I recommend trying to look at them through fresh eyes and an open mind; this time from the perspective of momentum.
Tip #1: Break Down Goals into Bite-Size Chunks
As we’ve discussed, momentum is all about getting going; and to begin at the root of the problem we have to ask ourselves: why is it sometimes so difficult to get going? Nine times out of ten it comes down to you perceiving the task as a whole, leading to feelings of demotivation over the task ahead. There’s just too much! One way to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed is to take a large task and break it down into small, bite-size, digestible chunks you perceive as manageable by themselves. Then, tackle each manageable task until you’ve completed the overall goal. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Businessman and keen ‘yarnbomber’, Stephen Duneier, gave a Ted Talk where he speaks to the power of breaking down tasks into smaller ones, making him a clear-cut example of the power of harnessing momentum.
As a young student who was ‘below average’ he decided one day that he wanted to turn his life around. Realizing he needed to adjust his approach to studying, he decided to implement a new tactic of breaking down large tasks into a series of smaller ones. This way he could easily handle them and they wouldn’t scare him off the prospect entirely.
This quote from the Ted Talk sums up his philosophy brilliantly:
“What stands between us and even our most ambitious dreams has far less to do with possessing some magical skill or talent and far more to do with how we approach problems and make decisions to solve them; and because of the continuous and compounding nature of all those millions of decisions that we face on a regular basis, even a marginal improvement in our process can have a huge impact on our end results.”
Stephen started with just 5- or 10-minute chunks of a task at a time. Years later he is an artist, adventurer, professor, strategist, coach, businessmen, author, speaker, daredevil, Guinness world record holder, award-winning hedge fund manager and clear over-achiever.
We can learn a lot from Stephen and creating momentum is certainly one of them. Looking at a complete yet daunting goal may stop us in our tracks; however, by breaking it down into digestible tasks, we can retain our momentum and keep ploughing forward!
His small tasks allowed him to overcome the hardest thing to do, getting started.
Actionable Tip #1: Use workflows to get in momentum
A workflow is a " sequence of tasks” designed to take a process from initiation to completion, usually in a professional setting. We use workflows for everything in our business, it helps break things down and create little milestones throughout each task, just like Stephen does.
Actionable Tip #2: Plan, plan, plan
The more you plan, the more you break down what you’ve got to do and the easier it is to get motivated and into momentum.
Actionable Tip #3: Remind yourself of your goals
Keep a note of your key goal and each morning look at it to remind yourself why you are doing what you are.
Tip #2: Set Long-Term and Short-Term Goals
There are plenty of people who think spending time considering their goals is a waste: “I already know what I want. How’s it going to help thinking about it rather than working towards it?”
It’s true that the excitement of a new project or idea can kick us straight into action-mode, so we may see our much-desired dream finally actualized. However, it is this excitement that may prove to be our downfall and kill our momentum before it reaches its full potential. In all the frenzy, we often forget to plan our long and short-term goals which may be a mistake as these provide a constant and clear reminder of why we are doing what we are.
In fact, there’s an abundance of studies connecting goal setting with higher confidence, esteem, motivation and success. There are two kinds of goals you can use to help get in momentum: long-term and short-term.
• Short-Term Goals
Setting short-term goals is much like a frog using lily pads to cross a pond. Upon first examination the frog will perceive the jump from one bank to the other as impossible. But by using the lily pads to break down the distance into doable leaps the frog now believes it can do it, simply because it started looking at the task from a much more manageable perspective.
There’s a wealth of studies devoted to the effect of goal setting, however in this case one of the most relevant is one which found that setting short-term targets help achieve long-term goals. This backs up the point from Stephen in tip #1 where you take your overall goal and break it down into smaller digestible pieces so it appears less intimidating.
Then, take them on one at a time.
• Long-Term Goals
Long term goals are simpler really, they remind you of why you’re in the place that you are. We all know how easy it can be to get wrapped up in the now and forget to look at the big picture.
As author of The 4-Hour Workweek and serial entrepreneur, Tim Ferriss’s biggest tip in business is to constantly find the major barrier/roadblock holding you back from where you want to be and, then, focus all your energy on it.
This is a really fascinating strategy from Tim. He is focusing wholly on the big picture, on his goals, how to reach them and what is holding him back, all the while keeping a clear and constant image of what he’s working towards in mind. By doing this he focuses his short-term targets on achieving the long-term success he desires, using both types of goals in unison to drastically increase the efficiency of his overall process so he can live a life where he only needs to work 4 hours a week!
What’s the moral of this story?
Goals keep you focused, help with staying on track and are a fantastic way of getting in momentum.
Tip #3: Overcoming Feelings of Demotivation
There are many people out there who’ve spoken of the internal monologue, the smaller version of you in the back of your mind always trying to hold you back. “I could go to the gym…” Or you could just stay here and relax? “I should start that presentation…” Perhaps just do it tomorrow though? I personally love Sabri Subi, founder of King Kong in Australia and author of best-seller Sell Like Crazy, and his perspective on this. He calls this voice in the back of our minds the ‘lil bitch’ form of ourselves and proclaims it to be the enemy; he says we must always remain in tune, ready for when it might strike with an effort to hold us back. He labels it the ‘lil bitch’ to remind that it’s not a version of us we want in control. The truth is even people who are wildly successful in life have this inner voice trying to hold them back. Joe Rogan, a famous podcaster with over 1000 3-hour long episodes on his YouTube channel frequently admits how he has to battle hard to stay motivated all the time, whether it’s going to the gym, getting ready for a show or getting up in the morning. So next time the voice in the back of your head tries to hold you back from getting into something, it is crucial you take Sabri’s advice and say “no” to the ‘lil bitch’, if you want to truly getting in momentum. The biggest challenge with this lies in identifying the times when you are being ruled by your inner voice. By spending time trying to be conscious of this you’ll slowly build momentum, start noticing its effects and be able to stop it in its tracks before it gets a grip on you!Tip #4: Lowering Pressure and Noise
Finally, from the master of momentum himself, Alex Charfen, global consultant, coach, entrepreneur and creator of the Momentum for the Entrepreneurial Personality Type podcast.
If you want to continue on your journey to getting in momentum, I recommend checking out his podcast, he’s an extremely inspiring speaker and brilliant motivator!
Alex has spent his life studying the great entrepreneurs through history and in his search, he says time and time again how lowering pressure and noise was written into the lives of these people. From Albert Einstein choosing to wear the same things in order to reserve his decision-making capital to Steve Jobs insisting on not wearing shoes so he would be comfortable.
Alex defines pressure and noise as “anything in our lives that makes us experience a loss of momentum”. He also postulates that the relationship between things that give you momentum and those which do not is binary, meaning: “if they don’t give you momentum they are taking it away from you.” Alex has imparted a significant lesson here; now we know all that is required to lower pressure and noise and reach a state of momentum is to identify all the things that drive us towards our goals as well as all those which hold us back.
Once identified you can put workflows and systems in place to overcome them and get in momentum.
Actionable Tip #4: Spend just 5 minutes making a list of all things motivational and demotivational in your life.
Actionable Tip #5: Start paying close attention to when you feel momentum.
Final Thoughts about Momentum – The Secret Hack to Success
Today we’ve covered strategies for getting in momentum, what’s holding us back and how to overcome it. You can have all the tips and tricks in the world and still not see success if you aren’t motivated or in momentum. With these simple techniques and strategies, you can drastically reduce the stress and anxiety you experience when you have new challenges in your professional life or even your personal one. Indeed, what's good about this hack is that it can be applied to any task or part of life, whether it’s getting motivated for going to the gym, checking your emails or getting up early. Start with just one of the tips from these successful businesspeople and start harnessing the power of momentum today! Growth Hackers is a digital marketing agency that helps businesses gain sure success through various growth marketing strategies including social media marketing, video and content marketing, SEO, email marketing, fundraising and more. We always get in momentum when it's about growth hacking. So, Contact Growth Hackers now so that we'll get in momentum together and propel your business.
George Spain-Warner
A.K.A. Green Lantern, I am a Co-founder of Kinsume, the world’s first eco-affiliate marketplace, and Author of the Exploratree Marketing Blog. Our ethos is there’s always a win-win, which is why we’ve given our marketing platform and blog tree planting initiatives. Learn more about us and our story here.
1 Comment
Great article. You bring so much value here. Thanks.