They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. And it’s true, of course. But what about when you’re 100 miles into the thousand-mile journey...
They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. And it’s true, of course. But what about when you’re 100 miles into the thousand-mile journey, and the last ten looked the same as the ten before that?
The worst part of a journey is not the start (as daunting as that can be) or just before then end, it’s the middle section, when you’re halfway up the mountain and you can’t see yourself making much progress. At the beginning, you can see the starting line receding, but in the middle section, there’s nothing to tell you that you’re getting there, and, what’s worse, that initial nervous energy and enthusiasm have worn off by that point.
Okay, overused travel metaphors aside, this is clearly true in the pursuit of our goals. When you start off in the gym, you can look around at the people around you and be intimidated but motivated at the same time (the fact that those early gains come pretty quick helps too). Once you’ve moved beyond your beginner phase, however, and the gains come slower and you barely notice a difference in yourself, it becomes harder to keep going and getting up when it’s dark to get to the gym before work is that much harder. And it becomes much easier to get discouraged and give up.
The same is true when you’re writing your thesis or building your business or renovating your house. The enthusiasm is there in the beginning, and you see the progress. But, at some point, you stop seeing the progress and the end never feels any closer.
And you feel like you’re in quicksand.
It’s discouraging and demoralising.
The answer to that situation – to getting out of the quicksand – is to get your mind right by building momentum because having momentum is one of those things that helps you turn up when you’d rather not, and it’s the thing that keeps you rolling when you’re out of fuel.
But how do you do that? How can you get your head right and build momentum at the same time?
You stack the wins.
By that we mean that we need to actively look for the little successes every day, the little achievements that will get you there – and that’s not just in the gym; it’s in everything you do.
Got up on time? It’s a win.
Made the bed? Win.
Actually ate a decent breakfast? Win.
Got to gym? Win.
Got through the first set even though you weren’t feeling it? Win.
Finished the session? Win.
It might seem silly, but even those small things are mini achievements and they add up. And when we take conscious note of them, we can see that we are moving forward – even if we can’t quite see it in the unforgiving mirror.
But there’s more to it, even. Whenever we mentally mark a victory, we get a small hit of dopamine and feel a bit more positive.
So it goes: win > dopamine > win > dopamine > Win > dopamine… and you have momentum and a positive headspace.
It’s a virtuous, upwards spiral, and it’s eminently encouraging.
The great thing about this is that it also helps form habits that are hard to break, and it helps you when you come up against an obstacle (like when you fail at something).
It helps with habit formation because positive reinforcement like that and actively looking for the next task and next success make habits stick.
And it’s also particularly helpful when you get to a difficult patch or you face setbacks. Because you keep stacking the wins, when you do have to take a step backwards, it’s n the context of you experiencing success after success after success, so it’s not as bad. And besides that, by constantly looking to stack the wins, you’ve trained yourself to do the best thing in the face of a setback or failure: doing the next right thing – immediately.
As we go into winter, we want to encourage you to try it. Stack the wins. Everyday.
You will see and feel the difference. And it’s what you need to do to reach your goals. It’s what you need to do to keep pursuing your goals relentlessly.
Keep running.
