Momentum

Writer Steven Press­field has a post on his blog on main­tain­ing momen­tum. He’s a pro­po­nent of the value of work­ing every day.

Momen­tum equals power

Momen­tum pro­duces another crit­i­cal pay­off. As we work day after day with focus and inten­sity, energy starts to con­cen­trate around us. That energy acts like a pow­er­ful elec­tro­mag­netic field, draw­ing to us all kinds of prov­i­den­tial aid and assis­tance. Ideas come. Insights accu­mu­late. We even get help from out­side sources—friends with money, col­leagues with con­tacts. Serendip­i­tous meet­ings pro­duce happy out­comes, seem­ingly ran­dom occur­rences bring unex­pected allies and lucky connections.

When Paul said, “Start the next one tomor­row,” what he meant was, “Don’t mess with your momentum.”

Paul knew that the inter­val between the com­ple­tion of Project L and the com­mence­ment of Project M is a power moment for Resis­tance. Resis­tance loves that moment because it can jump all over us with its arse­nal of pro­cras­ti­na­tion, self-doubt, inde­ci­sive­ness and self-befuddlement. It can par­a­lyze us.

The time to decide on Project M is while we’re in the mid­dle of Project L. We should know what we’re going to do next. Oth­er­wise we’re sit­ting ducks for Resistance.

This is exactly how it works for me. If I am work­ing on a paint­ing and can do some kind of work on it every day, then the momen­tum car­ries me through. If I stop, there’s a lot of effort involved in get­ting started again.

Go read the whole thing.