Never Get Lazy

The biggest detriment to getting where you want to be is slowing down your momentum. As you’ve heard before: effort breeds more effort. When you see yourself making effort it inspires you to take more action because you know you can do it. The hurdle of simply taking the first step toward your goal is the toughest one, but once you take that step, and then the next one, and the one after that, it gets a little easier each time.

Think of it like two different perspectives on a marathon race. One from when you first sign up for the race, and the other from the finish. It’s the oldest analogy in the book. But so appropriate. The task of running an entire marathon is so daunting from the start, and the build up to the race seems like the longest process ever. You have to first sign up, which sets in motion the training process. And you have to put in a ton of effort to even get yourself into running shape. Then you have to actually run the race itself. But once you actually cross the finish line you’ve done it. You had a goal of running a marathon and you did it. And you probably realize how it wasn’t near as bad as you worked it up to be.

But think of how much more difficult the race would’ve been had you gotten lazy in the training process. Not only would you lose a day of progress you could’ve made, you lose the momentum you had and you see yourself stop. Never underestimate the importance of seeing yourself succeed or fail.

You have to show up for “work” every day. Even if it’s a little. You have to keep moving. In the moment it seems like such small steps, but you’ll be able to look back from the finish line and see how huge your progress was. And it will make going forward to even bigger things that much easier. Because again, what you see yourself doing is perhaps your strongest motivator.