There's only one thing you need to get what you want out of life. Once you have it, you become unstoppable. Until you get it, you'll stay stuck in the same loop you've probably been in for a while.
I coined the term 'loop' a while back to describe the process you go through when you want to change your life in some major way, but continue to fail to do so. Most people spend most of their lives stuck in a loop. I've been stuck in many different ones over the years. It's a part of life, but you can get out of it.
The loop looks like this:
- You think about doing something positive to change your life. Visualizing your success feels good. You're optimistic.
- When it's time to jump off the ledge, though, you either hesitate at doing whatever initial steps are required or you do them in a half-assed way
- Because you've made little to no progress at whatever it is you're trying to do, you revert back to the life you've always known
Most people go through this loop over and over again. They get excited, try a bit, struggle, settle, and get excited again. Either that or they just lose their excitement altogether and give up.
Does this sound about right so far?
I'm not going to lie, escaping the loop isn't easy at all. But there is one tool that can help you do it.
Momentum.
Once you get momentum, you're golden. You're literally a hot streak away from changing your life. If you can take a hot streak and convert it into sustainable progress, you won't have to rely on massive amounts of motivation to keep getting better.
The question is, how do you build momentum? What can you do differently than all of the other times you've tried to achieve a major goal and fell short?
Honestly, sometimes it just requires being in the right state of mind at the right time for things to click. This is why I always say to go back to the drawing board as many times as you need to until it sticks. Repeat this process until it sticks.
Step 1 - The pain period
You have to get through the pain period and there is no magic recipe for doing this. The pain period is where you don't have the skills, knowledge, or resources yet to build whatever it is you're trying to build.
It's when you have a business idea but zero customers. You want to create content but have zero followers. You're totally out of shape. You want to be a charismatic leader but you're currently a wallflower.
To get out of the pain period, you have to ride whatever little motivational waves you can. The moment you feel inspired, start to attack. Take whatever initial step is necessary at first and move on to the next one. It won't feel good. And you will mess up.
But being in motion and making mistakes is better than sitting still, always. Seek to just move forward like a bull in a china shop. Brainwash yourself and download as much inspirational content you need to keep you going until you break the threshold.
Step 2 - Convert raw motivation into discipline and habits
It will require abnormal levels of focus and motivation to escape the pain period. Usually, you'll have to spend anywhere from 60 to 90 days in that period just moving forward without really knowing what you're doing at all.
But after a while, you'll have an idea of what you're doing. Your business plan will be solid or you will have a few customers. You've been working on your craft consistently and you know the chessboard of your niche. You've been hitting the gym for a bit and you see some progress.
Your job now is to sustain that motivation by turning your raw energy into a ritual you do every single day (or at least every weekday). This builds the foundation for real success down the road. At this point, the goal is to never have to revert back to going through a pain period again. Create a ritual around whatever it is you're pursuing and protect it at all costs.
At the beginning of my writing career, I wrote pretty ferociously for 90 days. After that, I settled into a routine that I would continue to use for years to come.
Step 3 - Scale-up and advance
After you have a base level understanding and motivational foundation, you'll have so many skills accessible to you that just run on auto-pilot where you no longer have to think about them.
At this point, you can start to branch out and build even more pillars in your life. Get your main business running smoothly and you can create new products or look to grow your customer base. Get your writing habit down and you can start adding new pieces to your catalogs like books. Go from simple workouts to training for events. You get the idea.
Once you have momentum, you can scale up in the area you built momentum in and you can start new projects, hobbies, ventures, etc. because you already have a part of your life you have a total handle on. The more successful milestones you add to your life, the easier it is to add new ones. They combine and compound until you're living the life of your wildest dreams.
That's the game, learn to play it.
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