At first glance, the concept of momentum might bring to mind a physical object that picks up speed, or accelerates. Like a car or a soccer ball, it needs some force to move it; like an engine or your foot, respectively. But when we frame momentum in terms of how the energy feels in a certain area of life, namely whether that area is moving or stuck, momentum is a little trickier to define. This is because this type of momentum doesn’t always abide by the rules of Newtonian physics.
The kind of momentum I will be referring to in this blog post is when enough energy in a particular topic or area of life has accumulated for there to be movement. Said another way, when the energy is picking up speed, this is momentum. Another way of viewing it is when it’s easier to keep things moving than to stop. Of course, since momentum can be in any particular direction, it can be positive or negative momentum. Positive momentum can lead you to fulfill your goals much faster. But how exactly do you achieve momentum towards your goals? Remember when I said momentum is the opposite of being stuck? When we think of momentum, we think of something picking of speed. Like a car going down a hill, at first it goes slow, and then it accelerates, especially if there’s no speedbumps. When there’s resistance, we will call them the “speed bumps of life”, which could be negative circumstances that arise, essentially momentum halts. However, did you know that it’s usually not the negative circumstances that are to blame? Yeah you guessed it – it’s your resistive thoughts that really stops the flow – or stops the momentum. Resistive thoughts can be anything that is misaligned with the goal you have. It’s basically contradictory to whatever you’re striving for, and feels icky. It could be self-defeating beliefs, reminders of your past failures, or just this underlying feeling of not being worthy of the goal/whatever you want.
Some examples of resistive thoughts:
1)Goal: Getting in Shape. Resistive thought: “Remember last year? I never made it past 2 gym visits? Instead try: “My past doesn’t define me” or “There’s many ways to get in shape, I’m going to stay curious about which way speaks to me”.
2)Goal: Starting a Business. Resistive thought: “Why is this taking so long?” or “I’m not sure I have what it truly takes to do this.” Instead try:
3) Goal: Eating Healthier. Resistive thought: “eating healthy feels like eating rabbit food”. Instead try: “let me see if I can collect a couple healthy recipes this week that inspire me”
You’re probably wondering if you have to think positive all day long to see any momentum and therefore progress in these areas of life? That can be a resistive thought in and of itself, right?
1: Acknowledge (don’t resist) the negative thoughts. Have you ever had a negative thought and thought to yourself – here I go again, why do I keep thinking negatively? It’s not bad to have the thought – it’s what you do with that information that matters. By acknowledging it instead of being upset at the negative thought, you let it run its course. Instead of resisting the negative thought (which would be a form of resistance), just notice it. It won’t have as much of a grip on you, and you can ironically, move on easier to one more aligned with your goals. Giving yourself a gentle reminder that your thoughts do not rule you, and you’re in charge can help too.
2. Bridge the negative thought carefully. Even better is finding a way to bridge a negative thought into one that is less charged. You can’t do this unless you first notice and acknowledge the thought. Maybe the thought is trying to tell us something or maybe it’s a hard wired thought from your past (thinking thoughts over and over again). An example bridging a negative thought such as “I’m not good at public speaking” can be turned into “I might not be perfect at public speaking right now, but I can get better with consistent practice”. Notice I didn’t bridge it to something like, “I’m a fantastic public speaker” because it’s too far of a leap, and it wouldn’t ring true for my brain. You want to believe the bridge thought so that you lean into that one even a little bit more than the original negative thought.
3. Look for positive “evidence”. Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly looking for evidence to support the stories we have about ourselves. We create stories around the events that happened in our lives. The stories become real the more evidence we accumulate, which essentially creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. The problem that can arise is when the past events lead you to having a negative belief about yourself. For example, if you had a couple tough failures in school, especially earlier on in life, you might internalize that and say something like “I’m not good at school” or worse “I’m not smart”. When failures happen after this, you tend to say to yourself, “See, I told you I wasn’t smart!” If successes happen, you might frame it as being lucky, and not realize you were at the root of the success. This goes back to the theory of cognitive dissonance, that uncomfortable feeling that we get when something happens contrary to what we believe. It’s easier for our brain to just negate whatever happens because it’s inconsistent with our main story about ourselves.
4. Listen to your gut feelings. If you’re like some people, you don’t always notice your self-defeating thoughts. It could be because it’s just always running in the background of your subconscious mind, so you almost don’t even notice it. Other times, negative thoughts can creep up into your body or brain more in the form of a feeling. Therefore, if you have difficulty identifying your negative thoughts, listening to your body is a good place to start if you don’t feel in touch with the thoughts. Do you have any random aches and pains or does your heart pick up the pace when you’re around toxic people or situations? This can also help you identify your triggers, like what are the scenarios where your negative thoughts become activated? Or even the triggers that help you to remain uplifted or positive? If you are not in tune with your thoughts, becoming more aware of how your body is feeling is often a great first step.
5. Slow and consistent. As you can imagine, slow and steady almost always wins the race. This isn’t to say that if you can’t work in short bursts, but as long as you do this consistently, you will build momentum. Everyone has a different work style, for some consistency can look like doing something for 10-15 minutes every day, for others, it might be a couple hours once a week.