#104 Why We Lose Momentum: Six Reasons, and the One to Work On
We think momentum starts small and builds, like a ramp. It doesn't work like that. Momentum works like a smile. High at the start, when you've decided and you're excited. Low in the middle. High again at the end, when you can feel yourself getting closer.
The middle is the dip, and the dip is where we lose momentum. There are six reasons why. Three come from the research, three from what I see in the work I do with people. Pick the one that's most relevant to you.
I made a full video on this. Watch it here, or keep reading for the short version.
One example all the way through
To make this practical, I use one example the whole way through: you are changing careers. You're still in your current job and you're working towards the one you actually want. If yours is getting fit, or writing a book, or starting a business, swap it in. It works exactly the same.
We misunderstand how momentum works
The dip is the boring part. It's where you have to do the same thing over and over again, long after it stopped being exciting. In the beginning you were enjoying it. When you lose all of that, you still have to keep going, until you reach that last bit where it picks up again.
In the career change, the start is the decision. You've told your partner, you've updated your LinkedIn profile, you start sending out applications. By month three, when you haven't had any success yet, that's where you start losing momentum. And the temptation to give up is biggest in that dip.
So one of the things we do is go back to the start. Instead of sending the CV to more people, we update the profile again. We go for more training. We watch YouTube videos on finding a new job. What we're really doing is running down the first bit of the smile again, where the energy is high and free, instead of continuing through the dip to the other side where it picks up.
Progress is invisible
It's like you've got this big bucket and you keep pouring your effort into it, but the levels stay the same. You pour and you pour and nothing changes. So you start explaining it to yourself. Maybe my energy is leaking out somewhere. Maybe I'm busy with the wrong thing. Maybe it's a waste of time. Maybe this job isn't that bad. Whatever your example is, you will find a way to go back to the start.
The dip is where progress feels most invisible, and it's worse on big things, because on the way to something big you're ticking off a lot of admin. You've updated your CV, you're doing training, you're sitting through interviews, you're waiting for replies. None of that feels like progress because you don't have the job yet. But all of it is progress. You just can't see it from inside the dip.
We want the reward now
We want to put in effort and then we want to see results. Effort, then reward. That's how we are built. When you're going after bigger goals the reward sits far away, because we see attaining the goal as the reward. In month three, after all the effort, nothing at your current job has changed yet. Same desk, same meetings, same salary. And the part of you that wants it now is also the part of you that says this isn't going to work.
Addiction to novelty
This is a big one for me personally. I like learning new things, and novelty excites me. A new project, a new course, a new video, a new podcast, a new book. That's also why scrolling is so addictive. The amount of information you can reach now is so massive that there's always a new angle, and we get addicted to learning about the new way instead of applying any one of them, including the ones you already know. Rather learning than applying.
In the dip, instead of sending the new application, you find a new course, a new certificate, a new idea about a completely different career. It feels like progress. Why? Because you're back at the start of the smile, where the energy is high and it's free. You never cross the dip. You just start again.
Craving easy problems
We crave easy problems, meaning problems you've already solved before. You know how to send emails. You know how to tick off your to-do list. So you solve those again instead of tackling the thing you don't know how to do yet, the thing that makes you feel incompetent sometimes.
In the career change, the easy problem is the CV. You've rewritten it four times. The hard problem is the role you're scared to apply for, or the conversation with your manager that you keep putting off. There's a simple test for this. If you've had the same problem for a month or two, you are probably just stuck in solving easy problems. So instead, upgrade your problems. Get better problems. Bigger and more complex problems are what take you up the other side.
Avoiding the mirror
Looking in the mirror is looking at yourself, at your inner world. The simplest, most powerful way to do this is journaling. A lot of you will say, I've tried that, it doesn't work for me. Writing down your thoughts is a beautiful, powerful mirror, but it has a delay in it. Sometimes you get the insight while you're writing. Other times it comes a week later when you page back and think, now I understand what I actually found there. If you can see yourself, you can change things.
We avoid looking in the mirror because we're afraid of what we might find. In the career change, the mirror is the question you might not have written down yet. Why do I actually want a different job? What am I hoping the new job will fix? What am I afraid of? If you don't sit down and look at those questions, you'll keep reaching for other things instead.
Pick one
Those are the six. Three from the research: we misunderstand momentum, progress is invisible, and we want the reward now. Three from my experience: addiction to novelty, craving easy problems, and avoiding the mirror. Pick the one that's most relevant to you and work on that one. If I had to point you to one, it's the last one. Look at what you find in the mirror. That's how you get your momentum back. Not easy, but possible.
If you want to know which groove you're stuck in right now, routine, uncertainty or trance, take the RUT Diagnostic. It takes three minutes.