44 Undeniable Ways to Build Momentum, Get Off The Sidelines and 10X Your Results
Momentum, we’ve all felt it.
When we have it, we’re on top of the world —laser focused, on fire and getting our most important work done on the regular with less friction. We’re experiencing more peak emotional states and all of life seems to come together with more flow, fun and peace.
But how often do we actually live in this place? For myself and my clients —we aim to manufacture and create these periods of momentum as much as possible.
Here’s what I’ve experienced:
Many people wait for an external reason to feel in momentum, but don’t do what the masters do: they create momentum every single day. Instead of waiting, hoping and praying for something to happen —they make it happen.
In this post, I wanted to share the 44 ways I’ve found to build insane levels of momentum, get off the sidelines and create internal levels of fulfillment —with the achievement to match.
1. Do it now —every moment you wait is one where fear takes a grip on your dreams.
Waiting on the bold decision you know you must make and giving in to fear, doubt and uncertainty is a surefire way to drain all of your momentum. What are you waiting for?
2. Visualize yourself in 3 years and nothing has changed. Take yourself through your day —how does that feel?
This technique is one of my favorites to create urgency and use future regret today. Be intentional and take yourself through every moment of the day.
3. Take yourself one year from today and you’ve had the best year of your life. What is the one thing you had to do?
On the flip side, part of momentum is being pulled by what we do want. Often, we attempt to stack 19 bold moves when all we needed was the catalyst to create the domino effect we’ve been waiting for.
4. Break your vision into the next quarter —set 90 day targets that are vivid, specific and measurable.
It’s hard to create momentum when you can’t see your targets. I’m all about big visions —but then chunk those down to the next 90 days for higher levels of urgency. We do this in The Integration Experience audio training.
5. Dream big, start small. Break everything down to the 1% in front of you and create progress.
Once you have your 90 day targets —identify the core processes and action steps to bring these to life. Smaller is better as complication leads to avoidance. This system is detailed in The 1% Rule.
6. Get off the couch, stop consuming —and start creating.
You won’t create momentum binge watching Netflix for the third straight day. You won’t create momentum watching a 24 year old live out his dreams on the field of play. Consuming the right information can be powerful —but what are you creating? Do more of that.
7. Fall in love with structure, routine and discipline. These create freedom —and the peace of mind of knowing you’re on track.
The more you can stack your day with your high priority actions, set ruthless boundaries and double down on your discipline —the more freedom you’ll have.
8. You don’t need another ‘system’ or ‘hack’ for getting your important work done: you need to make it a non-negotiable commitment.
People are obsessed with productivity systems —but they miss out on the most important part: tapping into their why. When you do this, you’ll never need motivation again.
9. Be willing to execute on your vision regardless of thoughts, feelings, emotions and moods —otherwise, you’ll lose.
The amateur waits to feel like it to move their dreams and desires forward. Unfortunately, this will never last and create powerful results. The professional executes regardless…knowing this creates the feelings most are sitting on the sidelines waiting for.
10. Passion, enthusiasm and positive energy are incredible —but without skill acquisition, you’re just another talker.
These ingredients are the launchpad to get started, but they’re not enough. Tons of people get excited, then do nothing. There are many people living purposefully who are still stuck. Identify the core skillsets you’ll need to amplify your value to the marketplace.
11. Own the first hour of your day and stay on Airplane Mode. Don’t stop until your “ONE” thing is done.
If you’re not willing to do this —you’ve already lost. Your attention is your most prized asset: own it, nourish it and protect it with everything you’ve got.
12. Take non-emotional inventory of your life —look at the data and treat it as a scoreboard of where you find yourself today. What are you gonna do about it?
The first step of transformation is getting clear about where you are —without emotions. Why? Because emotions create narratives that aren’t always based on data and facts. Get clear and be willing to own where you are…even if it sucks.
13. Stop telling yourself you don’t have time —this is scarcity thinking and a terrible place to operate from.
Tons of people discuss financial abundance mindsets, and yet operate in complete time scarcity. Creating from this place means you’re always scattered and never grounded.
14. You can give value, but if you’re not willing to openly receive —you won’t be compensated at your worth.
Trust me, I’m a relentless giver. What I realized was giving without receiving leaves you broke, exhausted and wondering why it’s not working. Be open to receive and own your worth.
15. Stop doing $12/hour tasks in your business —unless you want to drain energy for the important work.
For my solopreneurs, business owners and entrepreneurs: quit it. You’re doing the work because you can…which is a terrible framework to operate from. If you’re doing all the remedial work in your business, you’re going to wake up hating it one day —there is too much talent available for cheap for you to keep doing this.
16. Stop waiting to feel ‘ready.’ You won’t ever feel ready to invest in yourself, launch the platform or hire your first employee.
You’re not where you want to be in your business because you haven’t made the key here. You aren’t where you want to be in your growth and results, because you’re unwilling to invest in yourself. Stop waiting! Momentum is bred from owning a powerful challenge in our lives.
17. Create ruthless levels of urgency and compress your goals by 75%. Urgency drives focus and focus drives execution.
If you think it’s going to take a year, guess what? It’s going to take a year —or you may never do it. Your current capacity and mindset are extending your goals and targets out because fear is winning. Compress the timeframe and start today.
18. Stop hanging out with people who gave up on their dreams telling you to do the same.
You know you’re in the wrong tribe when you declare your dreams and desires and they call you crazy, lost, to “get real” and stop playing around. Find a new tribe and never look back.
19. ‘Hustle’ is overrated —if you do it right, you can create a day’s worth of production before noon every single day.
If you’re working 16 hours a day, you’re doing it wrong. I love the enthusiasm behind intensity, and I’m someone who seems to hustle. But there’s a difference between hustle for the sake of hustle and purposeful work. I teach a system where before Noon you can create a week’s worth of growth and results.
20. Free time is not freedom, and open space on a calendar leads to mindless priorities. Fill your day with what matters.
“But Tommy, I’m a free bird, a free spirit…I started my business to have complete control of my calendar.” This is why you’re stuck: free time is not freedom. Free time is anxiety, stress, scrolling social media and focusing on how much distance you have between where you are now and your big targets. Until one day, you quit.
21. On that note, if it’s not on your calendar —it doesn’t matter to you. Schedule it and commit.
Not much else to say here. I always get pushback on this —from people who tell me they don’t need a calendar. Again…this is why you’re not maximizing your potential and spending all of your time and energy on useless busywork.
22. Celebrate 7 wins every single day. Focus on your growth instead of how far you’ve got to go.
I don’t care if you had the hardest day of the month: find the wins. This trains your awareness to focus on what’s working instead of the challenges. Pull out your journal every day and identify the places you stepped into your courage and owned your value.
23. Make fast decisions —based on who you’re becoming. Indecision is a dreamkiller and leads to paralysis analysis.
If you want to kill your momentum, obsess over research, paralysis analysis and overthinking. You already know what to do…now do it. Start with the small things that are consuming your mental real estate —and build your muscle to make fast, powerful decisions and deal with the consequences.
24. Ship before you’re ready. Launch before it’s done. Say what needs to be said —do it now. Or else you’ll live in regret.
Newsflash: you will never feel ready to make a bold move. It will never feel like the perfect time. Instead, create these by stepping into it now.
25. Stop creating problems you haven’t earned the right to have. You don’t need to figure out how to ‘scale’ —you need a sale.
“But Tommy, I want to make sure I have a strategy too monetize.” WTF!? Someone once told me this about a YouTube project and commitment —yet hadn’t made two videos. They were stuck in a problem they frankly hadn’t earned the right to have —which is common. Earn your challenges…in this case, they had to ship 100 videos.
26. Your worst case scenarios are bullshit. There is ALWAYS another dead end job waiting for you.
Stop clinging on to the things that are causing you pain —simply because they’re known. There’s always a crappy job with a boss you hate, a toxic relationship, an environment you can’t wait to escape from. Fall in love with the unknown and honor your desires.
27. On that note, fear is your compass. What terrifies you is exactly what you should pursue.
Fear, resistance and doubt are all feedback mechanisms to let you know you must take the next step.
28. No one is going to discover you. Oprah isn’t going to build your career. Are you willing to discover yourself?
Our culture’s obsession with the overnight success and being discovered on Starbucks is killing so many people’s ambitions and willingness to execute. No one’s going to discover you. Oprah is done building careers. And when you look closely enough: you realize overnight successes took a decade of consistency.
29. There are no shortcuts to mastery. 10,000 hours are 10,000 hours. Want it, or don’t even start.
Your obsession with shortcuts is why you’re not succeeding. Everyone can get started. Anyone can sign up for a marathon, launch a business and declare their book. But what happens next? There is no substitute for reps, reps and more reps.
30. If you’re not willing to put money on the line, you don’t want it bad enough. Plain and simple.
It’s not the money itself —it’s what the money does: command our attention, focus, and priorities. You better be putting something on the line.
31. No decision happens in a vacuum. By saying “yes” to a crappy opportunity, client or relationship —you say no to the life changing ones.
You said yes to the client that’s completely out of alignment —you’re saying no to someone who is. Trust me, every time I go against my instinct on this…I beat myself up later. Once you have clarity on your North Star vision, make decisions in 100% alignment with serving it.
32. If you were serious about your goals, there would be real world proof of you moving forward on them every single day.
Just being honest here: this is a wake-up call for the talkers. There’s way too many people talking a big game, yet doing nothing and wondering why they can’t seem to create momentum.
33. Distraction is usually an avoidance mechanism for the pain of untapped potential —the average American watches 34 hours a week of TV.
The 34-hour number is astonishing —that’s a full time job going to distraction. I’m not saying don’t consume entertainment —but don’t become a slave to it. Social media, like anything…is a tool. You can use it to grow, or stay stuck. When you seek distraction, be aware of what’s really happening.
34. “I’ve spent a lot of time on this” is a terrible excuse to keep going. Sometimes quitting is the best option.
You hate law school, yet stay with it because you’ve invested a ton of time. You hate your current job, but choose to keep going because it’s been 5 years. Are you serious? This is a terrible way to stay anchored and wake up a life we can’t wait to escape from.
35. Your ability to manage your emotional resilience will dictate your capacity to grow and expand.
All change is emotional. Leaving the safe havens of your comfort zone means you’ll be brushing up with your emotional edges —learn to navigate these. Consider this a crucial practice on the path to your biggest dreams.
36. If you think success means eradicating problems, you’re in the wrong game. The most successful have bigger and bolder problems to be challenged with.
The bigger you grow, the bigger problems you’ll have: this is the game of life. Whats separates the intern from the CEO is the level of problems they deal with —as Dean Graziosi said on the podcast: seek bigger problems.
37. On that note, a comfortable life is one where there’s no pending challenge on the horizon that you’re being pulled by. This is when life becomes grey and dull.
There is nothing worse than being shackled by the comfortable life with no exciting challenge on the horizon. This is the hardest place to create from, and where momentum feels like a pipe dream.
38. As you grow and achieve results, you need MORE accountability —not less. Your blind spots get smaller as you succeed…but 10X more costly.
“Tommy, I’m all good now.” If you say this after you’ve experienced growth and success —you’re going to lose. The master understands their blind spots get smaller (and thus, harder to see) as they grow. At the same time, they become more costly.
39. Death is the greatest motivator and focuser on the planet. If you’re lacking urgency, go to your cemetery and soak in the energy.
It shocks me how many are unwilling to face this beautiful part of our existence. Death wakes you up and compels you and I to drop the bullshit excuses in the way. It reminds us what really matters.
40. On that note, don’t wait for a crisis to compel you to change. It’s a great place to transform from —but also the most painful.
The on-your-knees moment is a great place to change from, but don’t wait for. Refer back to #2 on this list to visualize yourself in a place of crisis —and choose something new today.
41. Do it now, do it now, do it now! Move cross country. Take a chance. Pack the family in the RV. Book the trip. There may not be another chance. There may never be tomorrow.
Please, please, please —do it now. The adventure you want to take, the podcast you want to launch —the conversation with your children you want to have. Be willing to live courageously even when it doesn’t make sense. It’s your time…right here, right now.
42. Lower the bar on gratitude. You do realize you have the ability to see, to feel, to experience the gift of life —and your ‘problems’ are what others would write a BLANK check for.
Your heart is beating. You’re able to take the next breath. You can likely walk, see, touch and experience this incredible life. You likely live in a country where you can express yourself. Momentum comes from a deep place of gratitude —always start here.
43. If you’re not tapping into your vision once a day, it doesn’t matter enough to you.
If you have time for Instagram —I hope you have time for your dreams. Even for 5 minutes a day: tap into the future vision of your life. The experience, the feelings, what surrounds you. This becomes your compass to guide you through the day.
44. There is no loss in going for it. Be willing to dare and the world will open up the doors you can’t see right now. But it won’t happen when you have one foot in and one foot out.
When you have 4 escape plans —you’re not all in. When you have Plan B’s and C’s and D’s…you’re one step away from quitting and moving on. Be willing to put everything on the line. You will never regret playing full tilt. You will never look back thinking you went after your desires with too much intensity. It’s time to triple down, cut off the escape plans —and go all in on you.
44 Undeniable Ways to Build Momentum, Get Off The Sidelines and 10X Your Results
Well, there you have it: some of my biggest ways to create momentum and take ownership of our lives. Because you are here to thrive and create the life of your dreams: whatever that means for you.
Remember: putting yourself out there on the path of growth will demand tremendous courage —but that’s exactly what we’re here for.
Which one connected with you? Comment, share and like this post if it resonated with you!