As my main man Steve Kamb says, “When you screw up, skip a workout, eat bad foods, or sleep in, it doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you human. Welcome to the club.”
Strong feelings pass, but while they’re here, they color and warp our vision, sometimes severely. So much hinges on this simple fact, and its implications, that it should be as fundamental a part of our education as learning language.
Visual cues can have an additive effect on motivation. As the visual evidence of your progress mounts, it is natural to become more motivated to continue the habit.
Planning to fail doesn’t mean that you expect to fail, but rather than you know what you will do and how you will get back on track when things don’t work out. If you’re focused on being perfect, then you’re caught in an all-or-nothing trap.
The third variation of productivity momentum that I like comes from the observation that projects that have already been built out are easier to work on than projects that haven’t.