Staying motivated in the little things that add up to success is a familiar challenge for us all. It’s not only hard to develop habits, but tracking them can be difficult too. Jerry Seinfeld has a creative solution passed to us in this post from Brad Issac in Lifehacker (link at right):
“He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.
He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”
“Don’t break the chain.” He said again for emphasis.”
What kind of chain you have will depend on the state of your career. For some it will be related to your instrument or craft. For others, it could be your career itself – making networking calls for instance. Still others might have chains involving self-development plans. You might even have several going on at once.
Just don’t break the chain.
