John Maxwell calls momentum “the big mo”. In his book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”, he says that, “Momentum is really a leader’s best friend. Sometimes it’s the only difference between winning and losing.”

You know you have momentum when you run over obstacles in your path like they were nothing. Momentum is when things happen easily, where one success follows another and forward growth comes quickly. Momentum allows leaders to move past mistakes quickly, and any kind of change is possible. People throughout the organization are motivated to achieve more, and at a higher level. And maybe above all else, momentum makes the leader look good.

In sales, momentum is when sales come easy, one after another. In fact you are confident going into the next sales call that you will make the sale. In your personal life momentum is when you are meeting your goals one after another, it is when your life is in balance and everything is going right. You get the idea  -- it’s like dominos where if one thing falls, the rest follows suit.

Achieving momentum starts with creating forward progress. Getting started is the most difficult part. It’s like the law of inertia: an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Momentum is what happens when you get moving.

Momentum starts with the leader, and then moves outwards and impacts the entire team. You are responsible for the momentum of your team; you can’t place the responsibility on anyone else. You need to be motivated yourself, before you can motivate others. Develop a vision for where you want to go and keep that vision out front. As you continue to move through the process your motivation will increase, and that will result in the rest of your team being motivated.

The second thing to do in building momentum is to apply the principle of massive action. In Olympic sprinting, the most important part of the race is often leaving the starting blocks. In your business you need to leave the starting blocks fast. Even if your business is established you can get out fast ­ start today and go! If you are in sales make a massive amount of sales calls; if you are promoting your web site, do massive amounts of promotion ­ whatever you do to grow your business, start creating momentum by doing massive amounts of what it takes to succeed.

The third step in building momentum is to follow one success immediately with another. When is the best time to try to set an appointment with a prospect? Immediately after you just set one. When is the best time to do a sales presentation? Immediately after you just made a sale. Far too often people will stop and take a break after they meet some goal or objective. They think they deserve a reward and they take a break. Well I’m all in favor of rewarding yourself for success but if you do this, your limiting the momentum you can achieve. If you’ve just had success in a particular goal, whether its making a sale or meeting a deadline you have gained a tremendous amount of energy and confidence from that action ­ so take advantage of it and make the next step. You are most motivated immediately following a success, make use of that motivation to continue the forward motion you’ve started. Reward yourself later, keep moving forward now!

As mentioned earlier, momentum begins with the leader. From there it flows over to the followers. You do this by creating wins for your team. Having seen your success the motivation of your teammates will be rising. You can capitalize on this by putting them in situations that allow them to see some wins in what they are doing. The more wins they can have, the more confidence they will have and the more momentum they will be build.

In this early stage of creating momentum it is extremely important to overcome any barriers that come your way. As momentum increases this will be come easier but in the early stages it may take a focused effort if problems come your way. A train moving at full speed will smash right through a brick wall and keep moving; however a single rock place properly can prevent a stopped train from getting started. So in the early stages of creating momentum if problems or obstacles come your way, do whatever it takes to get past them and move forward. That same problem will become easier as you see more and more success.

So, there you have it. Creating momentum is not easy. It takes hard work and effort, but once you have momentum, it can change your business. My next article will deal with how to maintain this momentum and not fall back to where you are now. So get started, and keep it moving, and you will see that momentum truly can be your best friend.