Create Instant Momentum

This is the Momentum podcast.

As entrepreneurs, we live for momentum. We want to be in that place of moving forward, making things happen. The world's following in our wake, achieving and changing the world. But inevitably, sometimes we fall out of momentum. We had lulls in our energy, lulls in our ability to move forward. We get to a place where things get challenging and frustrating, and I have set up my life systematically to keep me in momentum. But even this happens to me. Sometimes I'll wake up and I'm just having a challenging day or I'm frustrated or I'm feeling some anxiety or something that I see in my business or in my life sets me off and puts me in the wrong direction. And I have learned a hack, a trick, a strategy that you can use to get back into momentum almost instantly. And I want to share this simple strategy with you.

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum podcast made for Empire Builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate. There could be a better future. And instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world, because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution. And we always will be.

Like I said in the introduction, as entrepreneurs, we led from momentum. We love to be in that place of feeling momentum, of making things happen and moving things forward. But regardless, the systems we set up in our lives, regardless of the process, the structure, the routine we have, regardless how good our morning routine is, regardless how dialed in we are. Sometimes I think it's just a function of our personalities that we fall out of momentum. We have a bad day. We wake up and we feel challenged and frustrated and it doesn't matter what else is going on. Sometimes this is inevitable. And in full transparency, I want you to know this happens to me and I feel like I'm an expert in creating and maintaining momentum. And I've learned a lot of strategies on how to set up my life to stay in momentum. I have clear outcomes and targets that I'm driving for. I have clear measurements of scoreboards. I know what I'm accountable for, and the people around me are accountable for it. I dialed in my morning routine to a level that it's never been before. I feel like I get into massive momentum every morning, but still there's some times where I fall out of momentum, where I'm just not feeling it, where I'm frustrated, where I'm anxious, where maybe I got a letter from the IRS, or maybe I see a mistake in my business, or maybe I have some type of conflict or challenge with my kids and I even resolve those things. And sometimes I just don't feel like I'm back in it and I have that energy.

And there's this strategy that I've learned over time that puts me back in momentum every single time. And the phrase that I share with entrepreneurs is the fastest way to get into momentum, is to share it with somebody else and to give someone else momentum. We actually feel that ourselves. And here's what I've learned over time as an entrepreneur. When I feel that low in energy, when I feel that that psychological lull where I don't feel like I'm doing things is as well as I can and I'm not fully engaged like I want to be, and I'm in that place of frustration or anxiety and even in that chemical place of feeling kind of frustrated or depressed or not is as motivated as I normally am. I can go out and give someone else momentum and it almost instantly switches things for me and here's how I do it. You know, I don't spend a ton of time on social media, but when I do, I go out and I look for people that are doing awesome things and I give them sincere compliments in the comments. And I'll say something like, “You know, this is amazing and congratulations”. So few people commit to doing this when somebody shares in achievement or it's so rare that somebody is able to do this. Or I'll text a friend of mine and say, “Hey, just want to let you know I care about you and I appreciate you”. And you know, it's funny in my friendship circle, in the people that I'm involved with, when I am seen as and I often have reflected back to me how I'm one of most positive people that people know and how I'm one of the most supportive people, people that that my friends I engage with.

In fact, I remember a recent exchange that I had with Alex Hormozi, and he said he shared something with me that he was doing. And I said, “Alex, it's just extraordinary. Like you don't understand how that… you know, I want you to know how that puts you to such a small percentage of entrepreneurs that have the capacity and capability to do the stuff that you and Leila are doing. And he wrote back and said, “I think you're the most supportive and complimentary person that I know. You're so good at it”. And I wrote back and I said, “You and Leila make it easy”. And he said, “See? More support, more compliments”. And the reason that I've learned to do this over time is because I feel the momentum myself. And I wasn't always like this. In fact, I think of the person that I was in my twenties, I think of the person that I was when I was younger as an entrepreneur, we are programmed to look for deficits. We're programmed to look for challenges. We're programmed to look for the issues around us. That's how we identify issues, identify opportunity and create momentum. That's how we create the products that we create. Usually we're filling a deficit, we're filling a void. So we are programmed to have personalities that look for challenges and deficits and frustrations and anxieties, and then we correct them. And so I didn't always understand this. It took a long time for me to see and feel that if I help other people, if I'm sincerely complimenting other people, I feel the chemical change myself.

And so when I am in that place, I go out and I proactively compliment, I proactively, sincerely compliment. Now, this can't just be passive. You can't just go, ‘Great job’. I actually go out and I look for people that are doing awesome stuff and I tell them that I think of my friends that are doing amazing things and I'll send them a text message. And as I'm sending it, as I'm writing it, as I'm sharing with this other person the compliments and the accolades for them, they reflect back to me and I feel the momentum The second I hit send, I don't even have to get a reply. And this is something I want you to just think about and try. In fact, even if you're feeling momentum right now, even if things are going great, when this episode of the podcast is done, I want you to pause for a second and go out and compliment somebody. Send a friend a text message. Send a message to somebody on your team. Send a message through social media. Go make a comment on somebody’s posts who's a friend of yours and make a sincere comment. Like think about it and tell them why you appreciate them. Tell them why you're proud of them. Tell them why you are so glad that you're connected with them. And I want you to see and feel the chemical change it causes for you. Because here's what I think happens to us as entrepreneurs. We are those people who look for a deficit so I think for a lot of our lives, we feel like if we're out complementing and helping people and cheering them on, we're giving something up. In fact, I know that's how I used to feel. I used to feel like if I complimented one of my team members, they probably wouldn't work as hard as I wanted them to because I told them they were already doing a good job. I used to feel like if I went out and complimented somebody else, like I was giving up a part of myself. And I know that now only in retrospect that that's really if I'm honest and I'm transparent, that's how I felt.

But now, after having done this for as long as I have, after having as many conversations and exchanges and relationships and friendships and client relationships and team relationships that I have, I now know that the more positively I can reflect that person back to them, the more it helps them, but the more it also helps me. And I think it's just a function of being the entrepreneurial personality type, of being one of those people that gets up every morning, goes into the future, creates a new reality and comes back to the present and demands it becomes real. We are programmed to look for deficit. So when we change this programming and we program ourselves to look for the positive, to reflect the positive in other people, to reflect our pride in other people, to reflect our joy for other people, we actually program ourselves to do the same thing for us. And this is the fastest way to do it. It's the easiest way to do it. And my contention is that every single time you do it, you are going to feel a massive change. I want you to try this now and if you do, please come back and let me know. Let me know on social media. Let me know that you tried this strategy. Let me know that it works for you. Let me know that you felt the momentum of supporting and helping somebody else, because I think it's absolutely and totally life changing.

And if you want to learn more about the entrepreneurial personality type, I wrote a book called exactly that. The subtitle is “Your Guide to the Most Important and Misunderstood People Among Us”. And if you want to understand your personality type and have yourself explained to you better than anybody has. Go to eptbook - entrepreneurial-personality-type book. The initials E-P-Tbook.com, and we will send you a free copy. Just pay for shipping. I want you to understand the details behind who we are as evolutionary hunters, as the people who change the world, as I would argue, the most consistent source of positive human evolution there ever has been and ever will be. As entrepreneurs, everything around us was created by one of us. From the device you're listening on to the device I'm recording on. The chair I'm sitting in, the desk I’m behind the car you're in if you're listening to this podcast while you're driving. It was created by one of us, and I want you to understand yourself better so you can go out and change the world. And I also want you to try this and let me know how it goes. So if you want to understand yourself better, go to eptbook.com and please, if you try this strategy, let me know. Tag me on social media. I will make sure I reply personally, I'm looking forward to hearing from you.