Momentum is a fickle thing. One minute your team is leading by 21 points, but a sustained drive by the opponent, an ill timed turnover, and suddenly everything is going the opposite direction. I love the family movie Little Giants, where the underdog Giants start to claw back at the Cowboys, and the announcer quips, "Looks like Mr. Momentum has changed address."
When your on the side gaining momentum, it can be an invigorating experience. Things seem to simply be falling into place, as though you are the luckiest person on earth. This is an incredible feeling. Riding this kind of a wave gives a person new found confidence, and a sense you can do nothing wrong.
The feeling is drastically different on the flip side of the coin. There is a sinking feeling that hits when momentum is lost. Things seem to be much more challenging, and it becomes a battle just to get anything to work correctly. Confidence is busted, and doubt starts to creep in. With the doubt come questions. What is wrong with me? What am I doing wrong? Simple things can become a struggle.
Everyone has found themselves on either side of this. Life ebbs and flows, where there are times it seems like nothing could go wrong, and other times where it only goes wrong. What determine the next phase is how we respond. Sadly when momentum is on our side, many people will relax and coast. This is one of the fastest ways to lose the forward movement.
When we are on the bottom side we can regain momentum by a few means. First we can do something big, that brings a dramatic shift. The hard part is this is not easy to sustain. Instead, our focus needs to turn to the little things. When we build momentum back up by doing small things, we can look back and see the progress more easily. This also helps to rebuild confidence, which fuels our drive and feeds the momentum.
This is what today is all about. I started out this year wanting to write a blog daily, then I settled for 20 times a month (which I achieved in January). In February, I lost my momentum, and began to make excuses for not writing, and the next thing you know I had gone a few weeks without anything. This was deflating, and almost made me give up on the blog.
This morning I reminded myself that today is a new day, and March is a new month, and all I need to do is write one small article for the blog, and I will begin to gain the momentum back. So far so good, and tomorrow, I will build on today.
Where have you lost your momentum? What small thing can you do today to start moving in the right direction again?
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