Maintaining Momentum

It's yet another new year ... chemist shops are selling out of nicotine patches, gyms are full of sweaty bodies, people will cut down on drinking, and promises of all shapes and sizes will be made.

There will be business owners, flicking through the messy piles of business cards collected last year, that they haven't got round to following up yet.

But before the end of the month millions of New Year resolutions will be abandoned and forgotten about until next year ... when it will start all over again.

Lizzie Morrison - http://www.redbubble.com/people/lizziemorrison

I was reminded of this constant speed up and slowing down to a grinding halt process when looking at this wonderful image of a merry-go-round.

It's all about Momentum

"If you remember your high-school physics class (you do, don't you?), you'll recall Newton's First Law, also known as the Law of Inertia: Objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, unless something stops their momentum. Put another way, couch potatoes tend to stay couch potatoes. Achievers—people who get into a successful rhythm—continue busting their butts and end up achieving more and more.

It's not easy to build momentum, but once you do, look out! Do you remember playing on merry-go-rounds when you were a kid? A bunch of your friends piled on, weighing the thing down and then chanted as you worked to get the thing moving. Getting started was slow going.

The first step was always the hardest—getting it to move from a standstill. You had to push and pull, grimace and groan and throw your entire body into the effort. After a while, you were able to get up a little bit of speed and run alongside it. Even though you were moving (and your friends were cheering louder), to get the speed you really wanted, you had to keep running faster and faster, pulling it behind you as you ran with all your might. Finally, success! You jumped on and joined your friends in the joy of feeling the wind in your face and watching the outside world turn into a smear of colors.

After a while, when the merry-go-round started to slow down, you'd hop off and run alongside for a minute get the speed back up—or you could simply give it a couple good pushes and then hop back on. Once the merry-go-round was spinning at a good clip, momentum took over, making it easy to keep it going."

Darren Hardie ("The compound effect") nails the annual wishing process brilliantly with his word pictures.

A journey begins by taking the first step

Momentum begins by taking that first step
Progress is slow
The habit is formed
Momentum kicks in

5 steps to momentum

Create an action plan:
Break up the big bits into small bits:
Use outsiders to boost your ideas and network:
Review your structure and business model:
Make a 3 month plan:

To make planning work for you and your business, it’s better to keep it going, keep it in mind, keep it within easy to access, keep bringing it up and reviewing and revising.