Building the Momentum Mindset, or The Art of the Restart

Mindset (Noun)- An established set of attitudes or beliefs held by an individual.

Mindset. By definition, the word sounds harmless enough, doesn’t it? If you think about it, everyone has their own particular filter or lens they see life’s circumstances through. Our mindset is like this subtle undercurrent, silently shaping the way we pursue our dreams, react to challenges, and deal with obstacles. Until we awaken to the idea that we can (and must) play an active part in how we choose to see, we can allow our observations or even the advice of others shape our mindset in a negative way…and this will ultimately affect our destiny.

Today we’re going to look at building the momentum mindset, or what I also like to call, the art of the restart.

You’re Going to Fall

It’s interesting how I came about this whole concept of the restart. Sometimes it takes the realization of another person’s mindset to recognize your own.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine, and I was describing this moment when I was climbing with my son on this particular route, and he took a fall while we were climbing.

I was sort of nonchalantly relaying the details because I was just setting the stage for a point I was about to make, but my friend stopped me:

“Wait. Did you say you fell?”

Me: “Yeah.”

Friend: “You say it like it’s no big deal. You actually fall when you’re climbing?”

That’s the moment when it clicked for me. I could see through my friend’s eyes. I understood his mindset. He was completely surprised by the fact that we fall, and specifically that we fully expected to fall, and were okay with it!

We are a family of rock climbers.

Rock climbers fall.

For us, it’s not a big deal.

Falling is not only expected but it’s planned for.

In order to live a life without limits, a life where you don’t get stuck or lost or stagnant, you’re going to have to experience a critical mindset shift right here at this juncture. The way you think about and see the fall…this is a crossroad moment.

When you expect to fall, the question changes. Right now the question you’re asking yourself might be, “What if I fall with this thing I am trying to accomplish in my life? Then what? What happens if I fall?”

That’s a fear-based and paralyzing question. All the pressure is tied to somehow keeping yourself from falling, and deciding what that even means or looks like can keep you from taking another step in the direction of your goals and dreams. But when the question becomes, “When I fall, what will I do next?” that kind of question brings freedom.

It’s a mindset change. It’s a shift in expectation, and it makes all the difference.

Disclaimer: Falling is Not Failing

Once you experience the shift and allow yourself the freedom to fall, there comes with it the realization that falling is not failing.

When you’re a rock climber, failing a climb would be dying. I think we use the word fail too freely when we’re describing our experiences in life. Most of the time we use the word without even thinking. It’s that subtle undercurrent I talked about that’s silently shaping our view. I like to use the word fall because in climbing we fall, we trip up. We are human, so if we expect this to happen, then when it does, we can get back up and going as quickly as possible.
That’s where the restart comes into play.

The Art of the Restart

So, in rock climbing, when we fall we have a mechanism in place to stop the fall. We don’t just let go and drop to our death. It looks something like this: Maybe we lose our footing or our grip. Maybe we miscalculate a step. We fall. Once the fall is stopped, then we hang there on the wall, literally, and we work to get back. We call it working the route. We assess the situation, look for the next move we need to make, take a deep breath and a minute to recover, and then we restart as quickly as possible. That, in essence, is the Art of the Restart.

The idea here is that we don’t wait. We don’t let this long period of time pass before we start moving upward again. I mean, that would be silly, right? We’d just be hanging out on the wall. Who wants to do that? We also don’t lower down if at all possible. Once in a while, we might lower down a bit to get a solid footing, but typically we can just start moving upward right away.

So, this is rock climbing. Restarting is immediate, purposeful, and necessary. Let’s move the thought of this over to our daily lives, dreams and goals. How do we handle the restart when we fall?

Whatever your goal in life is, take a minute to become aware of how you view the restart. If you’re like a lot of people, myself included, maybe you wait for the next major calendar event.

The Calendar Restart

You’ve been going along, doing something on a regular basis. It’s something that you need to do —a routine that you’re establishing. Maybe it’s carving out an hour each day to write your book, work on your new website, or to exercise. You’re going along, just building that momentum, and then life happens. You fall off the horse.

There you are, at this crossroad moment; the moment right after the fall.

What do you do?

Well, what I used to do is, I would say to myself, “Well, today is Tuesday, so I’ll just restart again on Monday because that’s a good starting point.”

Seems right, doesn’t it?

So, in one quick moment of mindless decision-making, I just gave myself a free pass to do absolutely nothing toward accomplishing my goals for the next five days. By the time those five days have passed, well, I might as well wait until the beginning of the new month, because that makes more sense, right? By then there’s a holiday coming, or a birthday or anniversary, so I’ll just wait until that’s over.

Do you see what’s happening here? If you’ve experienced this in your own life, you know it becomes a frustrating cycle that can quickly turn into an entire mindset. In reality, it’s nothing more than a way to self-sabotage and practice the art of procrastination!

Don’t Die on the Wall

So, let’s go back to rock climbing.

When I fall during a climb, I would never imagine or consider just hanging out there for a while. Getting back up is immediate.

Can you imagine falling off of your bike and just laying there on the sidewalk for a few days? So, why is waiting such an appropriate response to falling off of our intentions or life goals?

Note: This is where your mindset can make that shift and you can choose to adopt the Art of the Restart in all of life. Right now. Right here! It’s a momentum building mindset that will give you the upper hand in all things because you’ll stop playing a waiting and procrastination game with yourself. You’ll also come to be known as a person who gets things done, and you will! All because of one shift in your thinking, one inner agreement that makes the commitment to get back up quickly, the next moment, the next heartbeat, the next breath.

If we didn’t immediately restart when we fell during a rock climb, we would never reach the top of anything. We’d spend most of our time just hanging out on the side of the wall, and probably in some scenarios end up dying on the wall.

Don’t die on the wall.

Here are three simple steps that will help you to Master the Art of the Restart. Not a calendar restart —a vertical restart:

Recall a Summit – Step one is to actually recall a previous summit when you fall. As humans, we have a tendency to want to replay the negative scenarios. Have you ever caught yourself saying, “This always happens to me,” or “I just don’t like to exercise. Maybe it’s just not my thing,” or some other BS story.

Internally, we are looking for a free pass to quit. Break this cycle by recalling a summit moment. Instead of looking at the struggle, think of one time in your life recently where you’ve experienced success, even if it was for a little while. See yourself standing on top of that personal mountain. Allow yourself to experience that sense of accomplishment all over again. Revisiting the summit will increase your faith and build that positive mindset.

The Next Move – Step two is to plan your next move, and maybe the next couple of moves after that. Sometimes we look so far out into the future that we become overwhelmed. We can suffer from analysis paralysis. When you’re on a climb, planning your next step or two is typically the only option you have. You know what the end goal is, but it’s a move right in front of you that is throwing you off so you have to focus on the next step, and keep going. This builds a powerful momentum and you’ll see how being present in the now and doing what you can with this moment will build a strong pattern that will lead to your goal.

Not-Ready, Set, Go! – The third step is perhaps the most important, second only to the mindset in and of itself, and it is to restart before you are ready completely.

What?

That sounds crazy, right? But the key to really gaining a substantial amount of ground in anything is to quickly assess, decide your next move, and GO! In rock climbing, we never know for sure if the move we are going to try is going to work. We can practice a little bit and check out a couple of holds, but then we have to GO!

So, right now, right here, you have a choice. Let’s make the commitment to get away from the calendar restart and the analysis paralysis mindsets. Let’s be quick with getting back up after a fall and quick to take a breath, assess our next step and take it!

If you do these things, you will master the art of restart, and it will have a massive impact on your life!

I’d love to hear from you and how your life is changing. Let me know if there is any way I can support you! Share your summit moments with me, and share this article with anyone who would benefit!