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Maintain Your Momentum
It’s easy to get things done when nothing stands in your way. It’s harder to be as effective when you need to step outside of your comfort zone. High performance teams get things done even when it is not comfortable, convenient, or pleasant.
Every time you feel yourself avoiding an activity (I.e. calling a new client, confronting a difficult customer, etc.), two powers are at work – force and resistance.
The force is your drive and motivation that pushes you forward to fulfil the task, and the resistance is the friction and obstruction that holds you back. The moment that determines whether the force, or the resistance, will win is called your ‘critical moment’. (see diagram below)
Critical moments occur when you need to make a decision to take action that you logically know is what you want to do, but emotionally feel that you want to avoid. The critical moment determines whether you allow your logic or emotion to determine your activity.
A critical moment is that time right before you pick up the phone to call a new client, when you have to speak to an unhappy customer, or when to need to give negative feedback to a colleague. These are things you need to do, but feel uncomfortable doing them.
Your critical moments govern the success of your professional and personal life, they determine the degree of happiness in your relationships, and they are indicators of your earning capacity.
Why? Because they reveal if you are able to manage your emotions well enough to make the tough decisions and do the tough action.
It’s when you avoid the tough stuff, the tough conversations, the uncomfortable moments, or the difficult calls that you don’t grow or learn – or worse – you accept mediocrity as the norm and follow the mantra of ‘that’s just how life is’ or ‘that’s just who I am’.
Momentum of activity comes from embracing the critical moments throughout your day. Resilience, and your ability to bounce back after tough situations, is the result of dealing with many critical moments.
