Progress, Completions and Moving Forward
It’s a great feeling to actually get something done. To look back, remembering the before, and to see the after. It could be something as simple as cleaning off your desk, cleaning out your wallet or purse, writing a blog post. It could also me something like setting daily goals and checking them off of your list one by one.
As it turns out, these completions and the feeling of progress that we make have a profound positive impact on us. The human mind craves these completions and we tend to seek out things which we know we can complete. This is an important thing to understand, because we often tend to avoid things that we don’t think we can complete.
I was reading the most recent Harvard Business Review and happened upon an interesting article about what motivates employees in the workplace. While most people would guess that money would be the number one motivator and that praise would probably be a close second, those answers were actually both incorrect according to their study. I thought their findings were so interesting (and relevant to this post) that I took a quick snapshot with my iPhone. Here’s the graph:
As you’ll notice, the number one answer during this study of what motivated actually employees was progress. Getting stuff done. Checking it off the list. Making headway. Seeing the fruit of their labors.
We all have a deep desire for completion and forward progress. So help yourself to gain a mental stronghold on your day by making progress and setting daily goals which are actually attainable. If your goal is to create an entire marketing plan, that might be too big for one day. Break it down into sections that can be accomplished.
The flip side of this is, of course, leaving things incomplete and unfinished. The emotion and feeling that normally accompanies incompletes is frustration and a lack of fulfillment. Enough incompletes and you start to tell yourself you aren’t going to be able to accomplish your goal. You may even abandon the goal is search of a more favorable goal that you can accomplish quickly.
This can be very detrimental, especially if the goal you are trying to accomplish is, say, building a new business. A complex and formidable goal, building a business takes time, planning, and honest goal setting.
Naming goals, making progress and getting things completed will help you to Build Momentum. Don’t believe me, clean your desk.
