Have you ever noticed that once you have a habit going, it’s easier to keep it going?  This is a result of momentum.  Momentum is the “force that keeps an object moving after an impulse is applied to it” (the impulse-momentum theorem).  I will spare you the long explanation from a scientific perspective (partly because I don’t understand it), but instead, focus my attention on psychological momentum and how to get it working in your favor for the change you desire.

Psychological momentum involves the changes in a person’s sense of control, confidence, optimism, motivation, and energy over a period of time.  Initial success leads to a feeling that things are going your way.  As a result, you feel more confident and capable.  By increasing these positive beliefs, your enthusiasm goes up, making your interest and intensity grow.  Momentum can happen in one experience, such as in a sporting event or a day in the stock market, or over a longer period of time, such as our family spending habits or creating and sustaining a new habit of working out.

In reviewing literature on momentum both in sports and in personal or business success, two factors seem most important:  focus and consistency.  When we lose our psychological momentum, it often coincides with a loss of focus (Markman and Guenther, 2007).  Something occurs that distracts us, very often being our own thoughts.  It normally starts when we have a set back and a negative spiral develops.  The other factor is consistency.  The more we stick to our intended behavior, the more we have the discipline to continue despite set backs.  Through consistency, we learn to overcome and inoculate ourselves from the loss of focus that can come from a mistake or bad performance.

So, in putting these two factors together, it is clear that daily actions can really help to build both focus and consistency.  Jerry Seinfeld, yes, the comedian, attributes a lot of his success in writing jokes to momentum.  He has a method that he refers to as “Don’t Break the Chain.”  He gets a big calendar that has a whole year on one page and hangs it on a prominent wall.  The next step is to buy a big red marker and for each day that he does his daily task of writing, he puts a big red “X” over that day.  After a few days, he has a chain.  The chain keeps getting longer, and after a few weeks, he enjoys seeing the chain and then his “only task is not to break the chain.”

This strategy seems to work because it creates discipline and fights procrastination.  In addition, it helps avoid the trap of a set back.  If you have one bad day of writing or performing, you settle right back into your activity the next day.  It takes the focus off of each individual performance and puts the emphasis on the process.   The key is to pick an activity that is meaningful enough to make a difference when done repeatedly, but simple enough that you can do it every day.  Mastery follows consistency when you have dedication to small manageable tasks.

In order to help get you started (the initial impulse needed to get the momentum) there actually is a “Don’t Break the Chain” app that you can buy.  Another app to help track your daily action is the Momentum Habit Tracker app.  However you do it, whether with a wall calendar, piece of scrap paper, or the use of technology, the principle is the same.  Do something, do it every day, and keep track of it.  If you see a chain of success, you will feel successful, and you will be motivated to keep it going.  Small improvements accumulate, because daily action provides “compounding interest.”  Conversely, skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.  Remember, the definition of momentum refers to it as a force.  Make the force be with you! (oooh, sorry!)