10 Ways to Build Momentum In Your Life

We all have goals, don’t we?  Whether it’s to become the senior executive at our corporation or to build a following of our parenting blog, our goals can seem difficult to reach.  When we look at our lofty goals like this, we don’t know where to start or what the journey will look like.  We feel overwhelmed by our dreams and limited by our beliefs of our ability to achieve them.  Additionally, if we are surrounded with people content in their current situation without goals for improvement, it’s hard to find the motivation to keep working towards our own.  I’ve recently been blessed enough to be able to join a beautiful mastermind group of goal-oriented mothers who work together to create momentum in their lives and in whatever their personal goals are.  We support and help each other continue to build momentum in our daily lives.  I would love to take a moment to share some of the things I’ve learned for building momentum to achieve your goals.  Check it out!

1. Make a plan

The best way to get started is to make a plan to achieve your goals.  Decide what you want to accomplish and what you need to do to get there.  Break these tasks up into smaller tasks.  For example: Your goal is to start a blog.  Ask yourself, “What do I need to do to start a blog?”.  You need to get a website, domain name, host company, learn how to use WordPress, learn how to make your blog visually appealing, etc etc.  Now break down those goals into smaller, more manageable chunks.  Get a website: Step 1 – figure out what it will be called.  Step 2 – research hosting sites. Step 3 – make sure your domain name is available.  So on and so forth.  When you break it down into manageable chunks, you have something to work on instead of a lofty task that you don’t know how to start.

2. Envision your “why”

Take time to really envision your reason for having your goal.  Continuing our example: Why do you want to start a blog? – I want to create a place to share the wisdom I’m constantly coming upon in parenthood so that I can help other parents find this wisdom faster than I did.  But, why? Because I struggled in motherhood in the beginning and I want to save others from struggling as long as I did.  But, why?  Because I lost myself in the beginning of motherhood and once I was able to find myself again, I became a better parent and a better person as a whole.  I want people to know how to advocate for themselves and their lives.  — Keep asking yourself why until you have a full explanation and understanding of why you are trying to achieve your goal. Without being very clear with your reason for reaching toward a goal, you set yourself up to fail when adversity crosses your path.

3. Prioritize your tasks

Creating yourself a “to-do list” in relation to your goals is an extremely important and often satisfying step.  Ya’ll know how Momma Caped Nerd loves her a good old to-do list.  Those days when I don’t have much for motivation or much brain power to figure out what my next steps are can be quickly repaired when I have my to-do list to refer back to.  Not only does making a to-do list help you prioritize your steps to achieve your goals, it also gives you an immediate sense of momentum and accomplishment as you start to check things off your list.

4. Take small steps each day

Do you ever wonder how people hold down full-time jobs, maintain a side-hustle business, and still have time to raise their kids and love their spouse? They do it by keeping momentum.  They take small steps toward their goals each day.  They make the most of their time.  They have their tasks prioritized and with whatever time they can find in their days to work towards their goal, they take at least one small step each and every day.  For the blogging example, if I have a small moment to post on my Facebook page, a task that only takes me about 5 minutes, I have still taken a small step toward my goal for that day.  This helps me continue to keep my sense of self, feel momentum towards reaching my personal goals beyond my children and family, and fuels me to continue to bring my whole self into all aspects of my life. You don’t have to do it all overnight, just do SOMETHING each and every day. Remember, even highly successful people are still just people like you and I.

5. Seek mentors and inspiration

I started my search for mentors via podcasts and blogs.  I started listening to powerful women who were doing their thang every single day in a way that I wanted to.  They offer me life advice that I can immediately apply and with that they give me the inspiration to keep aspiring for better.  Most of them don’t even know they’re my mentor.  There’s inspiration available for free all around us and we just have to find what speaks to us and our values the most.  One particular mentor of mine is the one who started the mastermind group I’m part of.  Coincidentally, she is also the one who convinced me that my personal goals were worth the investment in myself.  There is so much power in that and now I have the opportunity to personally thank her for giving me that gift. When I’m lacking motivation, I can review some work from my mentors and find the fire for under my butt that I so desperately need sometimes.

6. Make time for your goals

No one is going to conveniently give you time to work towards your goals.  You need to be your own advocate for finding time to work on them.  For me, I work on my blog on Saturday mornings.  I am the parent that does the daycare drop offs and pick ups throughout the week.  My husband and I both have full-time jobs but my schedule is flexible enough to allow me to spend more quality time with my son during the work week than my husband’s schedule allows him.  I have these blogging goals I’m trying to accomplish and I had to have a conversation with my husband to discuss finding a reasonable time for me to work on them.  For us, it worked out for Saturday mornings.  We typically don’t have things scheduled for Saturday mornings and when I’m locked in my room on my computer working away, my husband gets to have quality one-on-one time with our son without Mommy getting in the way.  It’s a win for all of us. How can you create a space and time for your goals?

7. Create accountability

Creating accountability is a vital step in building and maintaining momentum toward your goals.  Depending on your personality, you can create accountability from within by giving yourself deadlines to stick to.  For most people, creating accountability with others is an ideal way to keep yourself working towards your goals.  We have a innate desire to avoid letting others down.  Once you put your goals out there, or tell someone what you plan to get done, you are more likely to do it so that you follow through with what you’ve said you’d do.  This person can be a good friend, a spouse, or a coach that you hire.  Or, if you’re like me, they’ll be a group of ladies in your mastermind group expecting you to hold them accountable to their goals too.  However it looks, just make sure someone knows about your goals and inspires you to keep working towards them.  It can make such a difference, unless you’re rebel.  Then you have to find what’s going to work for you because having another person to be accountable to will make you less likely to do whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish.

8. Celebrate your wins and embrace your success

When you take one of the larger steps toward your goals or you meet a milestone, take a moment to celebrate that.  Treat yourself to a new article of clothing that makes you feel good, get your hair did, get your nails done, whatever feels like a reward to you.  It’s easy to shy away from your success and just immediately jump to the next task.  But, we need to recognize our accomplishments.  Remember that adversity I talked about that you will inevitably face?  By not celebrating your wins and recognizing your success, you will be more likely to allow adversity to derail you.  Plus, you’re freaking awesome and are getting things done.  You deserve a celebration!

9. Keep looking forward

There will be moments when you’re frustrated.  You will 100% have some sort of misstep along your path.  There will be days when you feel like your goals are impossible to achieve and you’ll wonder why you ever thought you could do anything like this.  It’s important during these times to keep yourself from dwelling on the mistake and you have to push yourself to look forward.  This will take some envisioning on your part, but it’s necessary if you want to keep momentum.  Really imagine what it will look like for you when you achieve your goal.  For me and my blogging, I look forward to the day when my blog reaches 50,000 people daily.  I look forward to when I learn that my advice changed someone’s life for the better.  I look forward to the day when I start making money from my blog and am able to continue this passion while replacing my current income.  I envision myself getting up each day, enjoying my morning ritual, drinking coffee, and banging out a few hours of blogging work each and every day instead of just once a week. I envision being in control of my own success and not being dependent on the vitality of someone else’s vision or business for MY success. That is a time in my life I look forward to.  What does the realization of your dreams and goals look like?  Really think about it in as much intricate detail as possible.  This is your continued motivation and what you will rely on when you are feeling downtrodden or defeated. This is how you find inspiration within yourself, where you need it most.

10. Give yourself some grace

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, you’re going to have some missteps along the way.  You’ll post something that offends someone.  You’ll completely miss a growing opportunity because you were too busy to recognize it at the time.  You gotta let that crap go.  You are a human being.  One of the difficult and most beautiful parts of that is you are prone to mistakes.  It’s part of this wonderful journey we call life.  It’s part of your journey towards achieving your goals as well.  The defining moment is not when you make said mistake, it’s when you figure out how to learn from it and do better on the next try.  Lewis Howes has some impactful words about failure in his book “The School of Greatness”: “Everyone fails.  Highly successful people fail many more times than the rest of the world and with much higher stakes at hand.  Once we understand this, we can look at failure as something to fall in love with instead of something to shy away from.”

 

There you have it.  10 ways to build momentum in your life.  Now, go get after those goals! You can do this!

Much love and productive vibes,

Momma Caped Nerd ❤

Do you have questions or suggestions for Momma Caped Nerd?  Did this post inspire or help you in any way?  Let me know by leaving a comment below or by visiting my Contact page. I’d love to hear from you!