You build momentum by moving in the direction of your dreams at a pace that feels right for you, one small step at a time. I call it Right Momentum. It grows from three habits: fight for inches every day, raise your floor after every big win, and reset fast after every slip.
- Right Momentum is forward motion toward your dreams at your own pace, where each step builds on the last.
- Fighting for inches keeps you hungry when life is good and complacency creeps in.
- A big win is a new floor and a new standard for what comes next.
- When you slip, shrink your dispersion and hit the reset button first thing the next morning.
What is Right Momentum?
Right Momentum is my name for moving forward in the direction of your dreams at a pace that feels right for you. Each step you take, no matter how small, builds on the last.
It came out of a stretch of pondering and learning. Picture a boulder rolling down a hill. Once it starts, it picks up speed and becomes nearly unstoppable.
Each step you take, no matter how small, builds on the last.
Right Momentum also bends. When you come across a rock in the river of your life, flow around it. Bruce Lee said it best: be like water. Adjust your course and keep moving forward. Fuel it by nourishing your body, caring for your mind and surrounding yourself with love and positivity.
To keep a daily streak alive, pair this with how to be consistent.
What does fighting for inches mean?
Fighting for inches means looking for the small holes in your game and closing them, especially when everything looks good. On the come up, you see holes everywhere and hunger to fill them. Success can soften you. Your self talk slips, you feel impenetrable, and complacency sets in. Good is the enemy of great.
| Part | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Mindset | You keep looking for the places in your game where you can get better. |
| Energy | A voice inside that says "I am never done." It creates vision, and it is contagious. |
| Mentality and action | You set the intention, spot the moment and act on it. |
My first Father's Day showed me this. I knew any big day everybody else celebrates is a chance to fight for inches. So I got up at 6:15 and did my reading, my workout and my morning routine. My son sat in his stroller in the garage and watched me lift weights for the first time. By nine we were celebrating. On my birthday I work out twice.
How do you keep momentum after a big win?
A week after I ran the Chicago Marathon, everyone asked me what was next. The answer came from Jesse Itzler. His Misogi for the year was to run 2,025 miles in 2025, which meant about nine miles a day for the rest of the year.
My Misogi was to touch my toes. Stretching had always been a weakness of mine, and progress comes in inches. Jesse's example lit it back up in me, and I posted publicly that I would touch my toes by December 31st.
Then I borrowed another Jesse principle. At a basketball camp at Duke run by Coach K, he figured everyone would train once a day, so he trained twice. I doubled my stretching from 10 to 20 minutes a day and stacked one session first thing in the morning, the same way I read. Doubling the effort was as much mental as physical. It created momentum in my mind.
So when you have a big win in your life, you're not done. That's the new floor, that's the new standard.
Rob Cressy
What does it mean to shrink your dispersion?
Shrinking your dispersion is my name for cutting down how long you stay out of your routine after a slip. Everyone slips. The skill is how fast you come back.
Travel, vacation and family in town all pull you out of rhythm. Many people let a slip run for months and then wonder what happened. Keep the gap short so negative momentum never gets rolling.
How do you get your momentum back after a slip?
I call this The Slip and The Reset. It came from a week in Chicago on full daddy duty while my wife worked. My training runs stopped and my morning reading slipped. I got back on a Sunday and went straight out for a run.
- Name the slip. Be candid. Where are you slipping, and what are the reasons for it?
- Audit every area. Look at your health, your wealth and your love. Are you slipping or are you dialed in?
- Own the story. I saw that week for what it was, a week of many firsts. Love yourself and skip the judgment.
- Hit the reset button first thing. The next morning I read and went for a run. That made me one day in a row.
- Stack day two. Line up tomorrow before it arrives. Two days in a row and here comes the rocket ship.
- Design the week ahead. Give your routine a place to land.
If the slip has turned into a long stall, start with how to get unstuck.
How can AI help you build momentum?
When I committed to touching my toes, I brain dumped everything into ChatGPT: my struggles, how I was thinking about it and what I had tried. Together we created a growth game called Ground Game 30, a 30 day commitment to stretch at least 10 minutes every day. Give AI the context of who you are and who you are becoming so its help fits you. Let it draft and keep the judgment yours.
Do this today
- Find one inch. Pick one area where things look good and name one small way to get better today.
- Set your reset. Choose the one action you will do first thing tomorrow morning whenever you slip.
Listen to the episode
The Slip & The Reset
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Read the full transcript
What's up? It's Rob Cressy and today I want to talk about what I am titling The Slip and The Reset.
So I just got back from one week in Chicago and it was absolutely amazing. And it was a week of very many firsts. So number one, it was our first time back being in Chicago since we moved there in September. It was the first time back for my wife who had a work event and was the reason why we were going there. And it was also the first time for our son traveling on an airplane. It was also the first time that he saw snow. And then last but certainly not least, it was the first time for me as the dad to be in charge of my son while my wife was at work. So it was complete daddy duty for me.
And I wanted to frame this for you because last week was unlike a traditional week for me. I'm someone who's all about that high performance lifestyle and mindset. It's who I am. It's what I do every single day. My habits, my habits, my routines, the things that I do to design growth and momentum into my life. But last week was not that. And that's what I'm titling The Slip.
So my number one priority last week was being there for my son so that my wife could go into the office. We did not have childcare, so I became the childcare. And there's a difference when you are 100% in charge of a child because you can't do much more else other than that. And that includes working. That includes reading. That includes many of the habits and routines that I would traditionally do. And that certainly includes fitness as well.
So I knew this going in that it would be a challenge. I didn't know how much of a challenge it would be in terms of my growth mindset or my growth lifestyle. And I'm thankful because I got one basketball session in with my friends. But other than that, my fitness was more of the micro fitness mindset, getting in 12 pushups wherever I can or do some dips on the sink. It was less than a minute. And that's about it.
I'm about that no zero days lifestyle. So I had no zero days, but I'm someone who's training for a marathon and I got no training runs in. And you know what? I'm okay with it because the story that I told myself going in was I'm a little bit dinged up. I'm going to use this as a rest week for myself so that when I get back, I can start building the momentum.
That being said, I'm still somebody who works out at least five days a week and it's part of my lifestyle and I enjoy doing it. But we get to Chicago, it's 20 or 30 degrees and it's raining or a snow mixture and I've got the baby. So all of the excuses and reasons why not to, they were right there in front of myself. Had I been on 75 Hard or the Live Hard program, of course I would have found a way to make it happen. But right now I was not on that program. So it did not happen.
Another area where I slipped was even on my reading. And if you can believe this, this is something that has been part of my routine for over a decade. And I usually do it first. Actually, I do it it first thing in the morning when I wake up, I read for 30 minutes. And I want to say, I only got to do that once, maybe twice because we're staying at friends places. And the second we get up, boom, we're changing the baby. We're getting him ready. My wife's getting ready for work. And then boom, I've got the son, my son, my son.
And up next was, all right, well, where am I going to create the opportunity to read? And he would go down for 30 minutes at a time, maybe 20 minutes, maybe an hour. But I had the choice of, was I going to use that to read or actually get some work accomplished? And that's what I was dealing with regarding my slip.
So the week was amazing. I was aware of everything, but I slipped. And I wanted to share this as someone who is all about this high performance life, that it's just as important for me to lead you when I'm doing amazing. But I also think it's important for you to hear about what I do when I slip, because I'm not a robot. I'm not perfect. And these things happen and they happen in your life as well.
But what I want to encourage you to think about is where are you slipping in your life? And what are the reasons for it? For me, this is a temporary blip on my radar. It is one week that happened. Boom, I'm hitting the reset button. I'm about that growth life immediately. But what about yourself? Be very candid and audit your life and your lifestyle. Look at your health, your wealth, your love, your happiness, your fitness, your love. I said love a couple of times, but it's that important. Your confidence. Look at these different areas you're reading and your growth. Are you slipping or are you dialed in? And boom, give yourself that candid look.
Because up next, what I want to talk about is the reset. And this is the important part. Because one of the areas that I specialize in is shrinking my dispersion. Meaning, how long do I go out of my routine? And the answer in this case was one week. And this is literally as long as it gets for me. And I shrink how long as quickly as possible because I want to start building growth and momentum back into my life.
So what I ended up doing is got back and right away, I'm like, I want to get a run in. Because that's going to start building my marathon training again. It's going to build my growth mindset. I'm going to sweat a little bit. So that's exactly what I did. I'm sitting here on Sunday morning and I'm going for a run. And boom, I'm now one day in a row. I'm building growth. I'm building momentum.
And this is so important because where do you think this idea of the slip and the reset came in? While I was on my run. So now I'm no longer in that slip mindset. I'm on that growth mindset. So I'm looking to get back as quickly as possible into my routine because tomorrow is Monday and I'm already going to be on day two of momentum. And this is the way that I deal with or design growth back into my life.
So I've already read this morning. I've already gone for a run. I already took one of those showers, which are the great showers where you wash a week of traveling off or maybe you went to a festival or maybe you went for a long run or an athletic thing. One of those ones where the shower feels like more than a shower. And for me, that cleanliness was the reset button and boom, I'm washing all of that off of me. And I'm back about that good life.
So I want to ask you, what is your process for hitting the reset button when you notice yourself slipping? Are you very good at shrinking your dispersion in minimizing how long you are out of a routine or you have negative momentum in your life? And once again, audit this for all areas of your life because this one skill is a game changer of all game changers because we all travel or go on vacation or have to watch our children or have family members in town or our internet goes down. There's a million reasons why a slip can happen.
But the key is, and I'm going to wrap a bow on this. The key is to number one, identify your slip and shrink the dispersion of how long it is there in your life. And then number two, hit the reset button and immediately, as quickly as you can get back into your routine. And so often people will let the slip last one week, two weeks, a month, three months, six months, a year. And all of a sudden they're like, what just happened? Uh-uh. You're so aware that when you slip, boom, that reset button, it is sitting there first thing in the morning. And that's exactly what I did. And now here I am building momentum with this piece of content.
I'm going to go and I'm going to design the week ahead. Once Monday gets here, boom, I'm two days in a row. Here comes the rocket ship. So wanted to share this with you. Once again, it's very important for me to let you know what's going on in my life, how I'm processing this, and how I am owning the story that I tell myself. I could have looked at the last week and been like, oh, you didn't train for your marathon. You didn't do the things that you normally did. Wow, that wasn't successful. Instead, I said, hey, this is a unique thing. It's a week of many firsts.
I love it. It was a fantastic time. I see it for what it is. I'm not going to judge myself. I'm going to love myself. But guess what? Now that I'm back, I am ready to kick ass and be that rocket ship that I know I am every single day. And that starts with right now. And I would love to hear from you. What do you do to number one, recognize your slip? And number two, hit the reset button. Is this something that is part of your tool belt as a high performer and someone designing growth into your life?
Transcript cleaned up for reading.