Building Momentum

Building momentum towards a goal, even if it’s a goal that takes a long time to achieve, is much easier than starting from the beginning every time.

This can be done by slowly working towards a goal.

Let’s say you want to learn to play an instrument, or a new style of music. Start by working on it every other day for 10 minutes. Then increase that time to 15 minutes or 20 minutes. Then add a few more minutes. Then maybe add another day. Continue with this until you’ve reached your goal.

That’ll be a lot easier to maintain than getting yourself excited to work on that goal for a few hours one day of the week or one day a month. That’s a really daunting task; spending 3 or 4 hours on one thing. That’s half a day. But if you spread that time out over the course of a month you’ll be able to spend much more than 4 hours on that goal. It’s just 3 times a week for 30 minutes for 3 weeks.

This is how I’m working towards learning violin. I’m practicing a few days a week for just 25 minutes. It’s short enough where I know I can fit it in, but it’s long enough to get myself learning just enough to make progress. If I’m really in a time crunch I’ll pull out my violin for 15 minutes. Give myself just enough time to practice the basics.

Build momentum by starting small. Small enough where it sounds like it won’t help. The goal is to build momentum not to make substantial progress.

ISJ