How to Grow Small Victories into Huge Extraordinary Successes
“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed, and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” - Tony Robbins
The quote above from Tony Robbins says it all. If you want to achieve extraordinary success in life, you need to leverage your momentum.
If your goal is to write a 300-page book, it is extremely difficult to get it all done within a week. But if you focus on writing just a couple of pages a day, within a few months, you will have the 300-page book.
The same goes for everything you want to achieve in life. Success is not a one-big-step process, rather, it consists of many small actionable baby steps.
If you want to build a million-dollar business, you can’t do it overnight. But if you are willing to take small steps, completing one task at a time, you will eventually bring your business from scratch to the million-dollar mark.
The key is to start small, leverage the momentum, and grow your success over time.
Understand How Success Works
According to Tony Robbins, we do things and take actions according to our beliefs and potential.
Here’s the success cycle as shared from Tony Robbins’ website:
And here’s an example of how the success cycle works…
Let’s say that your mission is to build a successful business. When you believe that you can do it and that you have what it takes to achieve the results you want, your confidence soar and you tap into your potential.
And when that happens, you will take more action. As a result, you will make more progress and achieve more victories, big and small.
And because you see yourself progressing forward and are slowly getting closer toward your mission, you become more motivated. You believe in yourself even more. You tell yourself that you can do it and you put in more effort.
So, you take even more action and produce even more results. And you create even more successes. And the cycle continues on and on. You are on an upward momentum.
On the contrary, the success cycle can work against you too…
If you don’t believe you can do it, your confidence level is low, and you doubt yourself when you take action. And because you do it in a half-hearted attempt, you’re not making much progress.
When that happens, you buy into your belief that you’re no good. You created the, “I can’t do it”, or “I know I’m going to fail” belief. You will then take even less action because you doubt yourself even more. Eventually, you produce little to no results. And you will quit in the end.
Do you see how the momentum can impact your life and the success you want in life?
How to Maintain Your Momentum and Ride the Success Wave
So, what can you do to make sure you are always riding the wave, building or maintaining your momentum, and are always progressing forward?
Here are a couple of tips…
1. Start Small and Grow
One of the most important factors to help you build an empowering belief is to see yourself progressing forward. When you see yourself creating small successes, you will feel good and you will believe you can do it.
And the way to make progress is to commit to taking small and consistent action. You don’t want to start big because it is difficult to take big steps. Plus, trying to tackle a huge task or project only makes you feel overwhelming.
Hence, start small and grow. Build your momentum step by step. Rather than exercise 3. times a week, start small by hitting the gym once a week. And after a few weeks, increase your frequency and exercise twice a week. Slowly increase your pace and don’t jump into it at once.
Starting small has been proven to be one of the keys to success according to science. Check out this article: Why Start Small? The 5 Important Benefits of Starting Small
When you start small, you lower the resistance to execute the behavior or action. And once you started, you will make some progress. And your progress will drive you to take more action.
2. Stop Sabotaging Yourself
Stop telling yourself that you can’t do it or things are too difficult. Instead, stop your negative self-talk and focus on the solutions, not the problem.
You can’t build your momentum if all you think about is you’re going to fail. You have to change your mindset and focus on the victories that you want.
Many people fail and give up not because their goals are impossible, but because they don’t believe that they can do it. They lose hope, they can’t see how they can make it, and eventually, they quit.
If you study the biography of extraordinary people out there, you will notice all of them shared a common trait — they believe in their dreams.
Steve Jobs believed in his products. Elon Musk believes that electric vehicles are the future and that living on Mars is possible. Thomas Edison believed that he can light the world and that was how he ended up with thousands of failed experiments before he finally discovered the filament that lighted the bulb.
Stop sabotaging yourself. Talk to yourself in a positive way and focus on the possibilities, not impossibilities.
3. Celebrate Your Progress
Next, if you want to grow your momentum and build on the success cycle, you have to learn to celebrate your progress.
Oprah Winfrey has a great saying:
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” — Oprah Winfrey
Yes, the more you celebrate your progress, the more progress you are going to make. Regardless of how big or small your progress, you should celebrate them all.
For instance, your goal is to write a 5,000 words article. If you manage to write only 500 words, give a pat on your back, and celebrate your progress. Tell yourself that you are at least moving forward and there are only 4,5000 words left.
And if you continue to take small steps, you will eventually complete the 5,000 words article. That’s how you grow your momentum. You do it one step at a time.
Check out this guide: 13 Ways How to Celebrate Small Victories and Make Progress
4. Commit to Self-Improvement
Finally, you want to commit to learning. The more you learn, the more inspired and positive you become. This is why reading is important.
Think about it, when you read the biography of successful people, you get to know how they started from the ground and created their success step-by-step. You will believe that if others can do it, so can you.
As a result, your beliefs become stronger and your confidence soar. You will take more action and make more progress. Hence, make it a commitment to read, learn, and improve every day.
Try your best to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour to read every day. And make sure you read helpful materials like success books.
Furthermore, you can also attend seminars and workshops to either recharge yourself or to learn new things. The more you learn, the more you know. And the more you know, the more places you can go.
Conclusion
If you want to achieve great success in life, you need to understand how the success cycle works and grow your momentum to make sure you are progressing forward.
People fail because they lose their momentum somewhere along their journey. Never let that happen to you. Start small, celebrate your wins, learn as much as you can, and do not sabotage yourself.
About the Author:
Shawn Lim is the creator of Goal Setting Formula — a powerful system for setting and achieving your goals. And he is also the founder of StunningMotivation.com and BlogItAway.com.
You can download his guidebook for free, Reach Your Goals from his blog, Stunning Motivation.
