Hello,
Momentum has a half-life of about 72 hours.
Leave a project untouched for three days, and your brain starts to doubt its worth finishing.
Everyone’s felt it, that stretch where everything clicks and progress feels effortless. Then one missed day, one slow week, and suddenly the rhythm disappears. The instinct is to push harder, to will motivation back into existence. But momentum isn’t built through force. It’s built through proof.
This week, we’re exploring how momentum really works, what happens in your brain when you lose it, and how to rebuild it through small, deliberate wins.
Momentum is a strange thing.
When it’s working, you don’t question it; you just ride the wave. When it stops, you feel like you’ve forgotten how to move.
What I’ve learnt over the years is that momentum isn’t magic or motivation; it’s evidence. Each small action that delivers a result gives your brain proof that progress is happening. That proof builds belief. And belief is what drives consistency.
This week’s edition breaks down how to create that cycle deliberately, even when energy or confidence is low.
Momentum isn’t motivation on steroids; it’s progress with direction.
We tend to assume big results come from big actions. In reality, the opposite is true. The brain doesn’t respond to scale; it responds to completion. Every time you finish a task, however small, you get a hit of dopamine, reinforcing the behaviour and making you want to repeat it.
Over time, that repetition reshapes identity. You stop chasing motivation and start expecting results. The goal isn’t to do more; it’s to close more loops.
When researchers at Harvard studied workplace motivation, they found one factor mattered more than recognition, money, or praise: a sense of daily progress.
Teresa Amabile called it The Progress Principle, the idea that even the most minor signs of improvement can spark motivation far more effectively than external rewards.
Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress. - Teresa Amabile
Each small step forward activates the brain’s mesolimbic dopamine circuit, reinforcing the action that created it. That’s why crossing off a list or finishing a workout feels disproportionately satisfying. When you stop giving your brain visible proof of progress, it stops believing effort equals reward.
That’s the moment momentum dies, not from failure, but from invisibility.
Elite athletes know this instinctively. They measure every stride, every rep, every split-second improvement, not because it’s glamorous, but because feedback fuels focus.
The same principle applies to anything worth mastering. The daily writing session, the client call, the practice run, the training rep, they’re all measurable moments of progress. Each one creates proof that your effort is translating into growth.
Action → Evidence → Emotion → Energy → Repeat
Momentum breaks when this loop breaks, usually at Evidence. If you’re doing the work but not seeing proof, your brain doesn’t get the hit it needs to stay engaged.
When that happens, you don’t need more effort, you need a system that gives you proof again.
For the next seven days, track just one micro-action that moves your most important goal forward by 1%.
Each day, answer three prompts:
Most people stall because they’re waiting for a big leap. The 1% Tracker flips that, it makes proof the priority, not perfection.
By the end of the week, you’ll notice motivation rising, not from hype, but from evidence.
But mindset still matters. The language you use about progress determines whether you reinforce belief or resistance.
❌ “I’ll feel motivated once I make real progress.”
✅ “Progress is how I create motivation.”
You don’t need more intensity. You need shorter proof cycles.
Once you’ve tried the tool, take a moment to zoom out. Momentum isn’t just about what you do, it’s about what you notice. Reflection helps your brain connect effort with meaning, reinforcing the belief that progress is worth pursuing.
“Where in my life or business am I waiting for motivation instead of engineering it?”
“What’s one small, repeatable action I could track daily to rebuild momentum?”
Write your answers somewhere visible. Awareness alone starts the loop.
This week’s pick is one I go back to often: The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. It’s an easy but eye-opening read on why small wins matter far more than we think.
It’s not theory-heavy, it’s practical. You’ll start spotting the “progress moments” in your own day that you’ve probably been ignoring, and that awareness alone can change how you work and lead.
Spoiler: it’s not praise, perks, or passion that keep people moving forward. It’s progress.
Momentum doesn’t come from big pushes; it comes from repeatable proof.
If you’ve ever struggled to stay consistent once the initial spark fades, this guide will help you change that.
Mastering Consistency breaks down the psychology of sustainable habits and shows you how to lock in small, daily actions so progress becomes automatic.
Big goals collapse under pressure; small wins compound under proof.
Before you close this email, take ten seconds and write down your last small win, professional or personal. That’s your evidence. That’s where momentum starts.
When you shorten your feedback loop, you don’t have to chase momentum. It finds you.
To your unstoppable success,
Writer, The Success Method
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