The power of momentum is…magic! Why? Because once you get momentum started, you can achieve magical things. A great example of this is when you learned how to ride a bike. It was scary and there seemed like so many things that you had to do to get going, like keeping the bike upright while you tried to peddle it. And watching where you are going.
But once you got going, it was easy to use balance and your momentum to keep you going. And that is how momentum works in business as well.
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My name is Irma and I help new bloggers to learn the ropes. There is a lot to take in that first year of blogging, from choosing a niche to changing your mindset from worker bee mentality to that of successful entrepreneur.
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To quote Tony Robbins “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed”.
The Power of Momentum is Like a Snowball Rolling Down a Hill
You will pick up speed and build upon what you have. If you are unsure of whether you need to set goals for your online business read the following post:
Related Post: The Importance of Setting Goals
It took me a couple of hours to learn how to ride a bike, mostly because the other kids got tired of waiting and ditched me. But I was determined to learn so that I could join them.
When I finally got moving, I used my momentum and kept moving
And you could not get me off of that bike once I got going. When I was first learning to ride that bike, I started at the beginning…the first step. For me that first step was to straddle the bike and get a feel for where things were. And this is where most people have to start things…at the start.
Momentum in business is much the same. Start at the start.
The first thing you need to do is take stock of where you are and where you want to be. You need to know what your success should look like. Vague ideas like “I want to be successful” are hard to quantify. More successful than…?
So start at the beginning. Decide where you want to go by setting some goals. Do not worry about what other people say should be your next step. Only you know the direction that you want your online business to go. You probably have a lot of great ideas, so write them down.
If you are not sure what type of goals you want to set for your business, read my post How To Set Business Goals: 5 Examples
How To Build Momentum in Business
Next, you want to decide which goals to work on first. For example you may want to improve traffic to your blog. The best way to get started is to list all the ways that you want to try.
Then pick the one that you think is your highest priority. You can prioritize any way you want. If you think one way might be better than the others or there is something that you always wanted to know about or try, start there. Intuition is powerful, so go for it.
Now, you might be wondering why is it so important that you get your first highest priority thing done first?
You want a quick win to gain momentum
Related Post: Work Smarter. Do The Worst Job First
If you want to harness the power of momentum, you need a quick win to build upon. Getting that rush of excitement that you are moving forward can help propel you forward even more! You likely picked up some information or feedback from that first project, or you got some new ideas that can also improve your blog.
Momentum is an incredibly powerful force on planet earth, and it works just as well in nature as it does in your own life.
Creating The Power of Momentum in Business
What momentum really does for people is it creates what can be called “a positive pressure” in your life. Do not confuse this pressure to stress, which is not helpful. This pressure is what happens when your snowball picks up momentum and cannot be stopped on its own. It will keep rolling until it hits something that causes it to stop.
You have probably noticed positive pressure when you start a project and the time flies while you are working on it. Hours can pass without you realizing it. This can be good if you have a deadline to meet. If you are unsure of what you should be working on, then you need to set business goals.
Need motivation? Then read my post: Goal Setting Motivation for Bloggers
Once you have a few goals (no more than 3 per month, so you don’t get overwhelmed), you can prioritize which items to work on daily to move you forward.
When I was trying to figure out how to set goals for my blog, I tried as many ideas as I could. There had to be something would spark a system that would work for me. I knew it in my gut.
First it was YouTube videos. And if I could find them, I printed off worksheets to practice on, which was sort of helpful for my brain.
I read so many blog posts about using a planner for goal planning, so I bought a basic one, but that did not work. It was a 2-page spread but looked like a regular calendar and it did not have enough space for me to write out my work for the day.
I did find a planner that would work for my brain. This planner has time increments, like Google calendar. It also has goal setting pages at the beginning of each month, which I find very helpful. Again, that is how my brain likes to work. Just filling in my goals for each month motivates me and keeps me moving forward.
And that is where momentum began for me
Find the thing that will help you get your business goals organized whether it is an app for your phone or pc, or a physical planner or whatever combination that you think will work.
Using the planner daily, I actually started to follow through with the items that I had time blocked. What did not work for me in Google calendar and their time blocking worked for me in a planner with paper pages. Who knew?
By the end of the first week I was motivated to fill in time blocks for the next week (= gaining momentum). Some days only had one item, but you have to start somewhere. Probably because of my endless fascination with school supplies, colored pencils, gel pens, highlighters, and stickers I was able to plan because planning meant “fun” for me. I love coloring, doodling, and now I love creating colorful time blocks.
As time went on, there were more blocks for every day. I would write in “write 500 words” three times a week and lo and behold, I did write 500 words on those days. I was remembering to write in things for months in the future (seasonal blog posts that I wanted to organize; annual subscription renewal dates).
But the best part was that I was doing it. I was getting work done and filling my drafts folder with posts, ready to publish. In other words, I was getting out of my own way.
I did not want to break the streak of momentum
And that’s what I’m talking about with positive pressure. You can start building a momentum in your life for all the positive habits that you want to create, simply by making yourself implement it for a small number of times in a row.
This could be something like drinking eight glasses of water a day. It could be going for a short, daily walk. It could also be stopping a bad habit, like getting on Facebook first thing, or checking email.
You start with one day. Then the next. Then the next and pretty soon you have momentum.There are plenty of examples of this that happen in your life all the time, and it’s simply the power of momentum taking you over. Over and over and over again.
And yes, I have purchased another planner for next year 😉
Related Post: Internet Marketing Goals: Tips for Success
This is exactly why priorities are so important
When you execute priority number one and you complete it, you’ve set yourself up for a momentum of productivity. The rest of the items on your task list, on your priority list, are going to be far easier to complete because you are now in an energy or flow of momentum that you deliberately created. You created this, knowing exactly how this would impact your life.
Here is exactly what I’m going to suggest you do right now if you want to put this into play. If you want to experience the power of momentum in your life, start with a first step.
Pick a small habit. Something you can implement starting today. It could be anything that doesn’t require a whole lot of thought or effort. It’s simply something you have to remember to do, like drinking 8 glasses of water a day. Or writing 500 words. Perhaps you can start with updating one post per day with more or better SEO.
Implement it today, then again tomorrow, and then the next day
See what happens on the fourth day. Just run this experiment for yourself and see how that positive pressure kicks in. Choose to keep following through with this habit. See if you still want to keep up with this habit on day four.
Plan to keep going anyway, but study your mindset. Study what happens to you with the positive pressure that gets created when you choose to embrace the power of momentum.
Conclusion
I hope that you have learned something about how you can harness momentum to really achieve great things with your website or blog. Once you get ahead on some of those tasks that have been on your list, you will wonder what took you so long! Or at least I did 😉
Other ideas for creating momentum include:
- Choose to create the life that you want. Make decisions about what you will work on and then do it. Aim for the top!
- See things for how you want them to be and create a path to that destination. Do not be swayed by limitations. Ignore them and move forward.
- Do not take advice from anyone who does not have to live with the consequences (or those people who have been blogging for less time than you have)
- Find other people in your niche who are a step or two ahead of you, and spend more time with them. Pick their brains for tips for success.
- Use the 80/20 rule (aka the Pareto principle): 80% of your results will come from 20% of your actions. Plan which actions are most important to your goals.
- Learn to block out chunks of time to work on your business. Set a timer and do that work in that time period. When time is up, move on to your next item.
- If you lose a day or two for whatever reason, vow to pick up where you left off and keep.moving.forward.
Please sign up for my FREE weekly newsletter of tips for bloggers and get my Goal Setting Worksheet and Weekly Planner Page from my resource library of PDF’s for bloggers.
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Until next time, happy blogging!
-Irma 🙂
