Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No. What?
Curly: This. [He holds up one finger.]
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean sh*t.
Mitch: That’s great, but what’s “the one thing”?
Curly: That’s what you’ve got to figure out.
—City Slickers, 1991.
We live in an era of ubiquitous distractions and, more than ever, we feel the stress of not getting things done.
All of us have dreams and goals we want to achieve in life. How can we build momentum towards our goals? Follow these steps.
Follow these steps to build momentum towards your goal:
Step #1. Have a purpose.
As the authors of The One Thing say, “Who we are and where we want to go determine what we do and what we accomplish”.
If you know what matters to you, you will make decisions and take daily doses of actions on the way to fulfillment.
It’s (almost) impossible to commit doing things you don’t care about.
What do you really want out of life? Write it down.
Step #2. Make a priority.
“It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”—Henry David Thoreau
It’s easy to get distracted (and nowadays more than ever). If you cannot differentiate what matters—in other words, what should be done—from what doesn’t, your important work will never be done.
Learn to say no and focus on your task.
How can you focus on your task?
Schedule focused, uninterrupted blocks of time. No exceptions.
Step #3. Go small.
Mark Twain used to say, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one.”
If you wish to run the marathon, forget about the 26.2188 miles and focus on the 5 miles you should be running daily the first week.
If you wish to write a book, forget about the 100.000 words and focus on the 300 words you should be writing per day.
Go small, and you’ll gain confidence.
With confidence and persistence, you will reach your goal.
Step #4. Think Big.
Avoid asking vague questions. Vague questions create vague responses.
“What should I do next?”
“Whatever”
Instead, if you ask, “What should I do to reach 1500 words per week?”
“I should block two hours/day for writing.”
Now think bigger.
Thinking big is about asking bigger questions. If your goal is 1500 words per week, your question should be: How I can reach 3.000 per week?
Photo Source: noisepicnic.com
Are you struggling to get momentum? Have you tried the above techniques? Let me know in the comments below.