Have you ever found yourself saying, ‘oh I’ll get onto that tomorrow, or next week’? Then tomorrow it doesn’t happen, next week it doesn’t happen, next month it doesn’t happen. Then it becomes one of those New Year’s resolutions, which lasts but a few weeks. Then it turns into ‘someday I’ll get around to that’
It may be losing weight, getting fit, creating that business, visiting a special place, going on a mission, writing to that old friend….or something else.
What’s your thing? What’s coming to your mind right now?
One of my things has been getting fit and reaching my ideal weight. I’ve started many times and achieved great successes, but never quite reached my big goals. This time round, as I’m about a month into my newest program, my trainer, who is the best most encouraging trainer I’ve ever had, explained to me the iceberg effect.
He said, you put loads of effort in and it’s hard as you see no results, but the results are happening. Your physical chemistry is changing, but you don’t actually see big results for at least a few months. So just like an iceberg, you only see the surface results but you don’t see all that you have done and created as it’s under the water so to speak, just like an iceberg.
Then I realized it’s the same for so many things we do in life. It’s the same for me as I build my business. You spend hours and hours building systems, creating products, promoting your business and yet you don’t see an immediate return on your investment of time sometimes for months or a couple of years.
In fact it’s the big things, the big goals in our lives that mostly fall into this category, giving us the iceberg effect.
Achieving the big goals and dreams in our lives is like pushing a heavy boulder up a hill. Imagine a big dream you have as a large heavy boulder. You keep pushing and pushing and often you feel like I’m just too tired I can’t do this, but you look back and see how much
you have already done, so you find the motivation and energy to keep pushing the boulder up the hill. You can’t see the top of the hill as the boulder is so big it obscures your view. So in faith you keep pushing, pacing yourself so you can keep going to reach the top of the hill. Then you feel like you are going to have to give up as it’s just too hard, but you know that you could be just one foot away from the top, so you keep pushing.
If you give up and let the boulder go, it will simply roll back down the hill and you’ll have to find the motivation and energy to start again someday. Yet, you know that once you have started if you keep a certain pace and speed the momentum the boulder keeps moving.
Getting started on my latest fitness program was incredibly difficult in the first few weeks. Now I have a momentum going. I go to the gym everyday (5 days a week), and it’s getting easier. The momentum I created in the first few weeks is kicking in. I know that near the top of the hill I may need to find more motivation to keep pushing the boulder, maybe in 4 or 6 months’ time. Stopping would be like letting the boulder roll down the hill again…..argh!!! No!!!
So, which boulders have you let roll back down the hill again? Where have you created some momentum in pursuing an important goal for you, and then lost motivation before achieving it and let it go? Alternatively, what dreams do you have for your life or your business that seem too big that you haven’t started any momentum as yet?
Here are a few quick tips on how to get the momentum started or re-started again: –
- Schedule one small action. Look at your calendar and schedule one small step to start. Make it an easy step, but make sure it happens.
- Congratulate yourself and celebrate!
- Repeat by taking the same or the next small step, within a 1 to 2 weeks.
- Congratulate yourself and celebrate!
- Go back to 3 followed by 4 and continue till you reach your goal!
Did you catch that? It’s actually only two steps, start, make sure you continue and celebrate each step of the way!
Let me know how you get on.
Tina