Forget ‘balance’ – why I’m striving for ‘momentum’ this year

It seems every second person is sharing their ‘word of the year’ for 2023. Step aside New Year’s resolutions, choosing one word as guiding principle to live by for the next 12 months is supposed to stick better.

‘But how can you sum up a whole year of life in just one word?!’ the cynics cry. True, true. Personally, for both work and life, I’m a big fan of quarterly or six-monthly reviews and that’s what I often recommend in my strategies. Three to six months is a lot easier to manage than 12!

But also, it’s kind of a fun exercise, right?

The problem with striving for balance

Since the new year ticked over, this concept of one ‘word’ has been buzzing away at the back of my mind. What’s 2023 all about for me?

As much as it might sound overdone, something that kept coming up for me a lot last year was ‘balance’ (and more specifically, lack of it). A lot of people say work-life balance is a myth, and I’ve never quite let myself believe that. Still, I’m not sure it’s quite the right thing to strive for.

The problem with balance is it’s always getting tipped. Then you feel frustrated.

Like many people, I felt a lot of this ‘imbalance frustration’ over the last few years through the pandemic. Too much time alone, then too many commitments to make up for lockdowns.

Recently, while driving in a moment of peace with both kids asleep in the back, I was thinking about my frustration with lack of balance at home. Through pregnancies, then baby and toddler stages, there’s too much slowing down, then too much speeding up, and back again.

Then it hit me.

Momentum.

What do I mean by momentum?

Momentum is about forward motion – at the right speed.

Focusing on momentum works for me in so many aspects of my life, from exercise to friendships to business. Having enough behind you to feel energised enough to push through and keep going, and enough ahead of you to keep pulling you forwards.

To bring it back to the pandemic, I know a lot of people can relate to the stagnation that comes with not knowing what’s ahead. And the drop-off from getting out of the habit or rhythm of something.

When I was pregnant, there was a period of time when I stopped exercising almost entirely. Goodbye momentum. Similarly, when I got really busy with work it was too easy to slow down on sourcing future projects (other freelancers might relate!)

Famously, Ernest Hemingway supposedly finished work each day mid-sentence or mid-scene, so he could easily jump back into it without a dreaded slump of writer’s block.

“I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day,” Hemingway wrote.

I like this focus on momentum rather than strict plans and schedules (it makes more sense to me than ‘write 1000 words a day’, for example).

How I see it working

In all the areas of my work and life that count, I want to work out the right speed for each – and keep up the momentum. Here are the three elements I think will be key to making this work:

1. Have lots to look forward to

This goes back to the Hemingway quote above. It’s about having unfinished business, small goals or plans to stay excited about.

A simple example: while out on a long overdue family daytrip, think about the next place we’d like to visit. With inspiration, it’ll be easier to make the time to do it again soon.

This year, I’m going to keep collecting small goals and plans for everything that’s important: an idea of the next new recipe I’m going to try cooking; a long-term workout goal to aim for; a few specific steps planned out for how I’m going to grow my business.

2. Don’t sweat if things slide

Aiming for perfect timing – perfect balance – isn’t going to work for everything, but as long as the momentum doesn’t drop off completely, that’s OK.

When it comes to content, publishing schedules are helpful to keep us on task. But, for example, if you miss your goal of posting every Wednesday at lunchtime, doing it on Thursday instead is far better than taking a whole week off.

At least you’ve kept up the momentum.

3. But avoid slowing down entirely

This one’s tricky; a delicate balance. It’s about knowing the right (approximate) speed; the right amount of downtime between sessions. Which will be different for everything.

For example, I’m OK having a few months off mountain biking, but I’ll hit a slump if I go just two days without some kind of exercise.

If you’re working on something big like a new product or a revamped strategy, I think snatching the small bits of time you have here and there works better than putting it off entirely until you have a whole day to focus.

If you leave it too long between planning sessions, your head will be out of the game. If you leave it too long between catchups, that friend might stop calling.

Those are a few examples, and I’m sure I’ll think of plenty more.

Basically, I’m going to keep pushing everything along so nothing important slows down too much.

Just to keep up the momentum.