In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton states in his first law of motion that:” an object will continue moving at its current velocity until some force causes its speed or direction to change”. He calls this principle “inertia” which is synonymous to “momentum”.
You may ask: What does this natural law of physics got to do with you or your business? A lot — – It can help you achieve your goal fast or stop it at the start. You may have probably noticed that after being idle for quite some time, it becomes very difficult to jump up and run. That is the effect of negative momentum or inertia at rest. However, if you have been running for some distance, it is a breeze to run up the stairs 2 steps at a time without losing your speed. This is because of the positive momentum or inertia in motion which you have built up by your running.
This principle of inertia or momentum can also be applied in running your business because this has a significant effect on your productivity. This article will show you how to eliminate negative momentum in your work and its adverse implications on the progress of your business. It will also give you tips how you can reverse your negative momentum and replace it with a positive momentum to jump start your progress.
Below are tips on how momentum can boost your productivity.
Get rid of your past. Nursing old guilt over past mistakes will only paralyze you from taking actions. They could have caused you to lose your confidence in yourself — a victim of negative momentum. The sooner you free yourself of this unproductive mindset and replace it with a positive momentum, the better for you and your business. Do not cry over spilt milk. The past cannot be undone. Start living in the present. Take inventory of what is left, pick up the pieces, and move on.
Work yourself up slowly. Having been in a state of negative momentum or inertia at rest for a time, you have to shake off the state of lethargy gradually. Set your goal but instead of abruptly starting with a sprint which may cause you too much stress, divide your plan of actions for reaching your goal into small doable sections. Work on each section one at a time. The successes you achieve with these small, easily achievable sections will help you recover your self-confidence. As a result, you will gradually gain your momentum in moving towards your goal.
Give yourself incentives. Each time you achieve one success, reward yourself to validate for your effort. This will boost your self-confidence and motivate you to successfully attain more goals. List down all your mini-accomplishments at the end of the day to reinforce your productivity and speed up your momentum more.
Make your attainments a habit. By constant repetition of your attainments, you will soon form these into a habit. Soon, this habit accelerates your working momentum so instead of walking towards your goal, you will find yourself running towards it with ease.
Be proud of your achievements. This will boost your morale higher and cause you to be more productive. You will get so used to giving your work a little more push each time. This will strengthen you to work a little harder every time the situation or your task requires it.
Do not miss those important breaks. They are necessary to avoid physical and mental burnouts. Once you have attained that ideal momentum, temper your enthusiasm—too much of anything can be counter-productive, too. It may adversely affect your productivity in the short-term. Just sustain enough drive of achieving so as not to slip back to another episode of negative momentum.
Get ready, get set, GO!