How To Build Momentum In Life And Business: 5 Steps Strategies

Do you want to have motivation and energy to go through each day? Do you want to get all your things done and be productive?

This is exactly what you are going to discover in this article. You will learn how to build momentum that will keep you going and eventually, become unstoppable!

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

And I agree. Motivation is not going to last and you should do something to keep up the momentum and get you going each day.

Successful people have learned how to manage their motivation and keep their momentum high. You must do the same.

Without motivation and without feeling energetic, you will never want to get your work done.

Living through your day feeling depressed, lack of energy, sleepy and always tired are not going to help you accomplish much.

You must change. You must adopt the habit of getting things done through building momentum and maintaining momentum throughout your day.

So how are you going to do that?

The Art Of Starting Small

When it comes to building momentum and keeping you motivated, you must understand the art of starting small.

Think about how a train moves or how a car moves. What happen when you put your leg on the acceleration pedal? Did your car move at a speed of 100km/h immediately?

No, it moves accelerate slowly to reach 100km/h. And what if you push the gas pedal harder? The wheels turn faster and the car will accelerate at a faster pace.

Will the car move to 100km/h instantly? No, but it will reach the speed in a shorter time.

The key takeaway is this – no matter what you do in life, everything starts small and it will build up and grow from there.

The same principle applies when it comes to building your momentum. You have to start small and grow.

Yes, that’s the ultimate key to creating, building and maintaining your momentum – you start small and grow.

Let me give you an example when you decide to go to the gym and workout for an hour, what should you do to build the momentum?

You start small by taking just one step at a time.

And the first step you can take is probably to change to your sports attire. And that’s the first step.

And once you changed your attire, you will feel the momentum building up in you and you will get out of your place and go to the gym.

Your First Step Is The Most Important

When you study all the billion-dollar business empires out there, you will notice that they all started small. They all start with one small first step.

The same goes for people who wanted to lose weight. No matter how many pounds you want to remove, you must lose that first pound. And to lose your first pound, you must do your first workout.

The first step is the most important because it will develop your momentum and keep you moving.

When it comes to reading a thick book such as Steve Jobs, consist more than 500 pages of words, most people feel overwhelmed when they think about finishing the book.

I will tell you what, you do not have to finish the book in one go. You just need to read the first paragraph. In fact, you just need to read the first word.

When you read the first word, the second word will follow. Your mind will automatically follow through and soon you will read the first paragraph, the first page, the first chapter and so on and so forth.

Did you know how to build your momentum right now?

You just need to start extremely small and do the first step. This is the key to accomplishing any big success you want.

How do you think Elon Musk started SpaceX that builds rockets? When you think about it, it sounds crazy. Building rockets, can you imagine that?

During an interview, someone asks Elon Musk how to build a rocket, and he said, “I read books.”

That’s it. It is the small idea and the small little steps that inspired Elon Musk to go on and venture into the aerospace industry.

You Just Need To Get It Started

When you have no idea what to do or you are feeling no motivation to do something, just do it.

Turn yourself into a robot and do your work mechanically without thinking much. Once you started moving, momentum will start building and the motivation will come automatically.

You just need to get your ‘engine’ started.

This is why it is so important to make the steps as small as possible because you want to make the work so small and so easy that you will have no excuses to do it.

Make your tasks as small as possible so that you will feel no resistant and want to do it.

What if you break your tasks into small steps but you still do not want to do it?

Well, you have to break the steps into even smaller baby steps. And what if you still do not want to do it?

Try to add in the fun factor and make the task fun. Try to listen to your favorite songs while working out or doing the cleaning. Try to get a friend to study along and try to get your favorite beverage while doing things you do not feel like doing.

Just do whatever it takes to do the one small step. All you need is to just take that first step and the rest will follow.

Now you have learned the little secret behind building momentum, so what can you do each day to keep yourself motivated and keep your momentum going?

Here are 5 simple techniques that you can follow…

1. Get A Great Start

You do not need to be great to start; you just need to start to be great.

You want to start your day strong. If you read my previous article on how to start your day great, you will understand better and learn more tips on how you can do it.

Your starting point is the most important, just like your first step. When you start strong and powerful, you will feel great and productive the whole day.

Conversely, when you do not have enough sleep the night before and you start your day sleepy and tired, do you think you can accomplish much during the day? Not likely.

This is why you need to start your day great.

Create a morning ritual that will put build up your momentum once you wake up. For example, you can:

– Read and review your goals in the morning
– Workout and exercise
– Write your gratitude list
– Meditate
– Read a book
– Visualize and plan your day
– Make your bed

You should create your own morning ritual and follow through until it becomes your habit. Of course, you can combine and do a few things in the morning.

For me, I will spend 15 minutes reviewing my goals and doing affirmations. And then I will spend another 15 minutes exercising and stretching.

It is totally up to you how you want to build your morning ritual, but whatever you do, make sure you choose a few steps and do not complicate the process.

The key is to follow through and make it your habit. You want to build the momentum that will keep you going for the whole day.

Create The First Win Early In The Morning

One very powerful habit you can adopt is to create your first win early in the morning. As an example, you promised yourself that you will make your bed, and the next day when you wake up, you tidy up your bed, you created your first win and you feel good the whole day.

Do you know that army in the US makes their bed each day? It is because they want to make it their first win the first thing in the morning.

When you start your day with winnings and a great mood, how would you feel?

Therefore, design your morning ritual that will make your first winning in the morning. Have a great day and you will be able to maintain your momentum longer.

2. Breakfast for Champion

Certainly, I’m not a nutritionist or your doctor, but I do believe that breakfast is important if you want to keep your momentum going.

As the word suggested, ‘BREAK-FAST’. It is to break the fasting.

You sleep for hours at night and your body has digested most of the food in your body when you sleep.

This is why you will feel hungry and thirsty after you wake up. And this is the reason why you need to eat healthy breakfast.

Each morning right after I brush my teeth, I will talk to my kitchen and drink a lot of water. I have made it my habit for many years and I do not think I’m going to change it.

Your body is dehydrated during your sleep for hours. So you need to drink plenty of water when you get up.

Here’s an article telling you what will happen if you drink water after you wake up.

Studies and researches have shown that drinking water on an empty stomach the first thing in the morning will make you healthier and cleanse toxic your body.

How about healthy breakfast? What should you take as your breakfast? Check these out:

20 Best Foods for Breakfast

30 Healthy Breakfast Recipe

So never start your day with an empty stomach. You cannot tackle your day and go through your work with motivation if you are feeling hungry and tired all the time.

Remember, breakfast is important and never underestimate what having a healthy breakfast can do for you.

If you want to be productive, do great work, get things done and feel accomplished, get a healthy breakfast before you start your engine.

3. Do Your Most Important Task First

When it comes to getting things done, you must do your most important task first when you start your day.

Brian Tracy, the author who wrote Eat That Frog suggests we eat the biggest and ugliest frog the first thing in the morning.

Imagine your tasks are like frogs. We have big frogs, small frogs, cute frogs and ugly frogs. The first thing you want to do is to eat the biggest and the ugliest frog.

After you have consumed the biggest and ugliest frog, all the small and cute frog will become no problem for you.

This is the way you should tackle your tasks. You must identify the biggest and most important task of the day. Do it and get it done the first thing in the morning.

Once you have got it done, you will feel lighter, accomplished, productive, and more confident and build up even more momentum.

And the rest of your day will be no problem for you.

This is what I do each day as well. I will do my most important task at 9am each morning. After I got it done, I feel lighter and I feel good.

You can choose to apply the same principle.

4. Take Breaks

Maintaining your momentum is as important as building it. Imagine driving your car for hours without stopping for gas, what would happen?

You will burnout and your car will run out of gas. And you will be in deep trouble if your car has no fuel and you stuck in the middle of the road.

Do not let this happen to you. So take breaks and recharge yourself from time to time.

This is why we need lunch. After breakfast, you work tremendously, and then you take a lunch break, and then you continue again.

You charge your phone every day, don’t you? Why don’t you recharge yourself as well?

In Chinese, we have a saying, “We rest because we want to go further”. And this is true.

So schedule breaks into your timetable. When you see there are breaks and time for fun and relaxation, your brain will be happy and willing to work harder.

Here is what you can do:

a. Take short and quick nap

There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a short and quick nap during the day. When you feel tired, you should just rest.

A very common situation is that most people feel sleepy after their lunch. Most likely this is due to their lunch – they consumed something too heavy.

Take a short 10 or 15 minutes nap. You will feel refresh and energetic again after that.

However, remember to not sleep more than 30 minutes because you will get into deep sleep condition. When you get into the deep sleep condition, you will feel even more tired when you wake up.

A short 10 to 15 minutes will be enough. And make sure you move your body and do some stretching after you wake up.

Sometimes you will feel groggy and move your body will help you awake.

By the way, successful people such as Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Winston Churchill all take naps during the day.

Like I said, they rest because they want to accomplish more and they want to go further.

b. Apply the Pomodoro Technique

This technique is powerful. It suggests you take rests between your works. Allow me to explain.

For instance, if you have 2 hours of work, you can work on it for 50 minutes and then take a 10 minutes break. And continue your work for another 50 minutes and take another 10 minutes break.

You can adjust the time of your work and rest according to your need. The key is to allocate short breaks in between your work.

We use our willpower when we work on things. And we recharge our willpower when we take breaks. This is why Pomodoro technique is powerful and productive.

c. Snacks, walk around, gaze into the window, read, etc

Steve Jobs who was known for his incredible focus used to walk around quite a lot to refresh his mind.

There are many ways to take breaks; you just need to choose one that will work best for you.

For me, I will read, listen to songs and sometimes just gaze at the window and do nothing.

What you want to do is to get your mind away from your work. You want to do something totally unrelated to your work so that you will feel refresh when you come back to it.

Remember, if you want to stay in your peak state, you must take breaks to maintain your momentum.

5. Get Fired Up

In order to build you momentum, you must get yourself fired up. Get yourself motivated and feel powerful.

You must identify your hot button – what drives you?

What makes you motivated and wanted to work on your goals and your dreams?

And you must do this every morning to get a kick-start on your day. Have you seen athletes who gather around before they started the match?

Rio Olympic 2016 will be officially launched tomorrow. If you watch any match, keep an eye on how each athlete motivates himself or herself.

Some will do fist-pump and some will say positive words to themselves. If it is a group, you will see them gather around and shout their winning slogans.

Whatever it is, they all do something to get them into the peak state. What about you? What did you do to get yourself into the peak state?

It can be as simple as…

– Read motivational books or articles like this one
– Listen or watch inspirational clips
– Share and talk about dreams and goals
– Read and learn other people successes
– Review goals
– Doing affirmation
– Visualize success and achieving dreams

Of course, the list above is just an example. The key is to do something that will drive you each day. You can do it once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening.

For example, you can review your goals 3 times a day, morning, noon and evening.

The key is to do something to fire up yourself and to build up your momentum. You want to keep your momentum up at all times.

Conclusion

This is how you build your momentum and keep it going. Start small and focus on accomplishing the first step.

Take breaks and keep your fire burning throughout the day. Recharge and replenish your energy when necessary.

Once you have learned and adopted these as your habits, you will become unstoppable. And by then, it is just a matter of time before you reach your dreams.

Do you like the ideas presented in this article? Let me know what you think through the comment section below.