“Success requires first expending 10 units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce 10 units of results with each unit of effort.” ~ Charles Givens, US businessman and author I named my coaching practice Momentum Coaching, as I worship momentum. Once you get it going, it’s unstoppable, for individual productivity, creative inspiration, and that golden moment when your business reaches “the tipping point”.
But there’s something else to know about momentum. It’s exciting because the rewards are magnificent, but like any power tool, you have to manage it carefully or you’ll get hurt.
My client Matthew is in momentum now. His business has taken off after two years of hard work with no vacations, but he still won’t take time off. Three factors contribute to this: the joy of momentum itself, the fear that if you stop, it will stop and sheer force of habit.
Matthew is young and full of energy. He can work 10 hours, play with the kids, visit with his wife, mow the lawn, fall into bed and get up 6 hours later as if nothing happened. However, I know many “Matthews” at the age of 50-cynical, pessimistic, burnt-out, and recovering from a cardiac bypasses.
Momentum depends upon energy. Energy depends upon reserves. The more energetic you are, the harder it is to stop yourself and build reserves. However, if “you” don’t do it, your “wiser self” will.
Resilience, after all-the big stress buster-means being able to start yourself AND stop yourself.
Diana wouldn’t take lunch hours. We discovered in coaching that when she doesn’t take time off every day, she then becomes sick for a week. Is her body grabbing back those stolen hours?
ARE YOU SCARED TO DEATH TO TAKE A VACATION?
Rosanne was. But, as a divorce attorney, she couldn’t ignore the factors she saw contributing to divorce. She now takes two long vacations a year – whether she wants to or not!
Allen is a physician who proudly told me he had not missed a day of work in 20 years, and that his “vacations” were Medical Conferences. That’s a poor trade for a divorce, one daughter who’s an alcoholic and another who won’t speak to him, and congestive heart failure at age 55.
The “take home and apply it” lesson? If you’re a dynamo, it’s especially important you take at least 7 days off in a row, at least twice a year. Long weekends and frenetic sightseeing trips where you “do it all” won’t refresh you at the soul level. Most dynamos don’t even unwind for 2-3 days.
Why not make it your project this year to find out exactly what refreshes you – at the soul level? Age makes absolutely no difference. It’s a life skill you need to learn, and with personal growth, there is no “too early, too late”.
You’ll find out when you return, the momentum is even stronger.
Click here to sign up for FREE B2B newsletters from Murdok!
Susan Dunn, MA, Marketing Coach,
http://www.webstrategies.cc. Marketing consultation,
implementation, website review, SEO optimization, article
writing and submission, help with ebooks and other
strategies. Susan is the author or How to Write an eBook
and Market It on the Internet. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc
for information and free ezine. Specify Checklist.
