On A Roll, by Sally Spooner
Most of us have heard the phrase “I’m on a roll”. And often we’re smiling when we say it, because it usually means that more than one good thing in a row has happened – like, we made 3 great shots in a row or we had 4 positive phone calls in an hour.
You get the picture. A “roll” is all about momentum!
In terms of moving forward with things in our life, especially the things we’ve been resisting or procrastinating on, there’s no dynamic more useful than ‘a roll’!
But how can we reliably conjure one up? They seem notoriously difficult to control. I mean if we could just create one whenever we wanted, we could get all kinds of things accomplished, right?
Well, what if we can? I was definitely on a roll this afternoon and I started to do what I often do when I catch myself in the middle of a pattern – I started to take it apart and figure it out.
What started it? How did I get there? How did I keep it going?
And what I realized is that ‘a roll’ starts with an energy boost.
Today, it started with accomplishing something pretty small and easy that I had been avoiding – one email to one client.
Whew, I thought…that was easy! So I sent another one from my to do list, and then another until all 5 items on that list were crossed off.
Wow, did that feel good! And I got all kinds of energy from doing it!
So then I dove straight in to a writing project I needed to start and plowed through that for an hour or more until my body told me it was time to stand up and move. And boy it felt great to get started on that project.
Next thing I knew, I had the energy to power-walk down the road to the mailbox – something I’ve been trying to do every day this week. I got back feeling revitalized and lo and behold…I had the energy to clean up the kitchen! And believe me, the kitchen is my nemesis – it’s the BIGGIE on my list.
Are you seeing the pattern here?
I started with one tiny email and ended up completing the BIG ONE, the kitchen. What I realized is that each task freed up energy for the next one.
So, the most important key to getting this “roll” going was starting small, with something that I had almost no resistance to doing in that moment, even though I had been putting it off.
As soon as the first small task was done, I felt so great about it that I got a boost of energy that made the next task possible.
Could I have done the kitchen after the first email? Noooooo!
There’s no way I would have had enough energy for that. It took the great energy and relief of completing 5 emails, invoices, an hour of writing and a fabulous walk to the mailbox to create enough energy for me to tackle the kitchen.
Isn’t that wild? You’d think that after each task I did, I’d have LESS energy available, but I actually had MORE!
Somehow, the energy I had available after each task led me to the next right task, not too big and not too small for what I could handle then.
It was like walking up an easy set of stairs.
So try this process:
The next time you’d like to conjure up ‘a roll’, pick a small task that will feel great to complete and just do it. And when you feel great after you’ve done it, pick one more and see where the energy takes you.
And if you feel blocked in your next task or like you don’t have enough energy to tackle it, you’ve probably picked one too big or too stressful. Try going for a smaller, easier item or something that feels fun and keep the energy going.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with this or with momentum in general.
