Keep Your Momentum in 2025

TL; DR: There are different ways to mess up new projects and new habits. Don’t waste energy on projects that don’t inspire you. Fight the Resistance in tiny steps. Make your habits specific, and integrate them with your established routine (see Tool of the Week).

You know what's going to happen.

Not to you, of course, but to most people.

All the ideals for the new year, those earnest resolutions and shining ambitious goals…

They all end up in the recycle bin like torn up gift wrappings by the end of February.

Not you, though. Because you know the secret to keeping your momentum.

Let’s talk about that for a minute.

Habits vs. Projects

The biggest reason people abandon their New Year's resolutions is because they never specified whether the resolution involved a habit or a project.

Making this distinction is the first is the first step.

This might feel like kindergarten, but stay with me. It's important to make the distinction because habits and projects bring up different challenges.

A habit is something that you do consistently on a regular basis. Like going to the gym or writing 1000 words or hugging your kids. Habits are often the secret to completing a project, but more often they are intrinsic goals in themselves.

A project is something you're going to accomplish one time. You publish a book. You buy a house. You earn your black belt.

When a project is done you get to celebrate, brag a little bit, and add another success to your list of stellar achievements.

So, habits and projects. Because it’s that time of year again. Gym memberships are going up and this is going to be your year.

Let’s look at what will kill your habits and projects.

Resistance: The Project Killer

Most projects die before they get started.

A booming voice inside your head tells you all the things that could go wrong, all the daunting and confusing tasks you’ll have to carry out, and all the reasons why you don’t need the extra stress.

All this internal resistance inspired Steven Pressfield to name the enemy of all ambition and creativity: The Resistance.

This Resistance is the same voice that saved your ancestor from falling off a cliff or getting eaten by a tiger.

But you need to ignore it for a while, and there are a few strategies for doing this.

For starters, it might help to remember that whether you take this particular action or not, you're going to run into problems and challenges. That’s just life.

You can't predict most of these setbacks, so there's no point in giving them your time and attention beyond a few basic precautions.

Thinking about what could go wrong should never slow you down in pursuit of your adventure. There will always be pros and cons. Don’t be conned into giving up on your dream.

Think big. Start Small.

One of the most insidious tricks the Resistance will use is to overwhelm you with details.

If you think too hard about everything you’ll eventually have to do, you’ll never start. Either you’ll be daunted by all the hard work ahead of you, or you’ll suffer analysis paralysis.

The solution to this is twofold.

First, think big. Have a dream that’s so inspiring and important that it feels worth the sacrifice.

When you’re stuck or unmotivated, you’ll be able to keep going as long as you remember what you’re fighting for.

Second, start small. Do one short task that brings you closer to your goals. When you finish this task, you’ll get a little shot of dopamine which will motivate you to do the next thing.

· Eventually you will need a website, a shopping cart, a storefront, and some good accounting software. But for now, just register your domain name.

· You’re stressed out about creating a backlog of social media content so you can post every day. But for now, just do one post and leave thoughtful comments on two other posts.

· You plan on knocking out a wall, installing granite countertops, replacing the linoleum floor of your kitchen with travertine, and buying custom hardware for all your taps. Today, just go online and pick out the sink you want.

The feeling of being overwhelmed is poison. Small, meaningful tasks are the antidote. 

Why Habits Fail

Now let’s say you’ve chosen to do something over and over again. You’re going to be a trickle of water that eventually carves out a beautiful canyon.

There are three reasons habits commonly fail:

1. You fail to specify when you’re going to do it.

2. You fail to specify what you’re going to do.

3. You quit when you can’t show up 100%

Let me give you an illustration.

How I Transformed Into a Beast in 2024 (Not)

In early 2024 I declared I was going to make it a habit to “exercise every day.” (Maybe you see the problem already.)

“Every day” is dangerously unspecific.

First thing in the morning, I would be taking care of animals, and then frantically writing to meet a deadline.

In early 2024 I sometimes managed to squeeze in a workout. Eventually I discovered two exercise “windows” around 10 am and 3 pm.

But I was never solid on when I was going to workout, and usually there was something already scheduled during those windows.

There were issues around what to do with these windows. My inner dialogue went something like this:

“I lifted weights yesterday. Should I do it again today? Or do I need more cardio?”

“Maybe I’ll go outside to do some burpees. Oh, it’s raining. Okay, the rowing machine then.”

“Aww, man, I’ll have to move the crate first and then put the rowing machine together and the noise might bother my wife who is on a call.”

This was the classic problem of not specifying when and what. Most days I just didn’t have the patience to figure it out, so I skipped working out.

Once I skipped a day, it was easy to tell myself that I obviously wasn’t serious, so why even bother? I would beat myself up for missing a day, and use that to talk myself out of missing another day.

The Power of Just Showing Up

Finally, I decided to focus on exercises I could do anytime, anywhere. To me, this meant push-ups.

Late in the game, I replaced my ambitious but vague fitness plan with something simple and specific: 50 push-ups every day.

After some experiments, I realized I could just bang them out in the yard with the dogs. And this is another key secret to habits: Integrate your habit with something that is already an unwavering part of your routine.

The dogs find it amusing when I do push-ups. They like to jump over me, under me, and on me while I’m exercising. I can break it into sets and throw the frisbee around for the dogs.

Most days it’s a furry, muddy, invigorating mess. It’s better than goat yoga. It might be better than coffee.

Now I know what to do and I know when to do it.

Let me be honest here. I don’t always do 50 push-ups. Sometimes I only do 30. But I’m doing push-ups every day, and it’s becoming as natural as brushing my teeth.

And that’s not all. Once the push-ups became consistent, I integrated them with other exercises. I eventually started “exercising every day,” just like the original plan.

If you can do something consistently for the two months, it'll be easy to keep doing it.

You’ll form synapses in your brain.

You’ll develop a routine.

As other people get used to your new habit, they won’t bug you about it. This could remove some of the distractions and demands on your time, making it even easier to stick to your habit.

Tool of the Week: Habit Integration

1. Choose a specific new habit you want to develop.

2. Look at things you already do every day.

3. Integrate your habit with another activity that’s part of your routine. (Such as doing push-ups when you take the dogs outside.)

4. When you integrate a habit, it’s easier to do it consistently. Consistency makes it stick. 

One final thought about the year ahead.

When you’re stuck or unmotivated, you’ll always be able to keep going as long as you remember what you’re fighting for.

So think big.

Have a dream that’s so inspiring and important that it feels worth every sacrifice.

That wraps it up for this week.

If you’re enjoying these rants, lessons, and tools, I would love to hear from you.

If you’re not, I would like to hear from you even more.

Reply to this email and tell me what you think, what you’d like to see in the future, or just to drop me a line about your cat.

I don’t always have the time to reply to your message, but I read every one of them.

Jacob