Chapter 2
Behavioral Momentum

The CEO of a Fortune 100 company stood on the stage, behind a lectern and in front of a large digital display panel. On the display were the words “Thank You!” along with the logo of their “Platinum Award.”

The event was part of an incentive trip for the top salespeople in the corporation, and it was being held on the island of St. Martin in the Caribbean. Only the top 1 percent of salespeople had been invited. The audience of several hundred people was attending this very special corporate meeting. They looked very festive in their Hawaiian-print shirts, swimsuit cover-ups, and flip-flops.

The CEO said, “As you know, this trip is not about work, but reward. Today we officially announce the top 10 sales reps of our entire company.”

As the CEO then announced the reps, one by one, he began with number 10 and counted his way down, generally adding a comment that went something like this: “Ben Smith, of the Southeast region, who has the account with Company ABC, which grew X percent over last year to a total of X thousands of dollars.”

This general statement accompanied the introduction of the reps numbers 10 to 5. When the CEO reached the rep in position number 4, he said: “Barry Ozturk, from the South Central region, whose account with ABC . . .” and then he flipped over the page in front of him to keep reading, “DEF, GHI, JKL Companies . . .” He paused and with amazement in his voice, he continued, “Wow, Barry produced X percentage increase this year and did so without a primary account.”

Most reps who reach the Platinum-Award level in this company have only one big account. Barry had reached the number 4 spot by hustling among several small and medium-sized accounts, which is significantly harder and very rare.

I had made a presentation to this conference right before this awards event and was listening to the CEO from backstage. After I heard the presentation, I tracked down Barry and arranged to have breakfast with him the next morning. My main question to Barry was, “How did you do it?”

He said, “Andy, by nine o’clock every morning, most of my peers are sitting at their desks finishing their read of the morning paper. By nine o’clock, I’ve already met with two to three new prospects. I’ve exercised, eaten a healthy breakfast, and had coffee with my wife.”

He continued, “I’m not trying to say that my coworkers are lazy. They are not. I know many are working past eight o’clock on most worknights. I just don’t think that is the most productive way to live, and it is certainly not the way I choose to live.”

I could see how such a fixed routine might work for a person who goes into a main office every day, but that was not the case with Barry. He told me, “My days are always different. Some are in the office. Sometimes I am traveling or meeting with people. Other days are spent doing paperwork. But, I have very consistent patterns.”

Barry’s pattern goes like this: He wakes up early, walks to the opposite side of the room to the table where his alarm clock sits. He flips the alarm off—no snoozing. He walks into his closet and puts on exercise clothes that he has laid out the night before. He goes immediately to the gym, the treadmill in his home, or jogs outside for 30 minutes. He cools off after his exercise, has a mug of coffee from his programmable coffee maker (which was preset the night before), and sits down to eat a breakfast that he also laid out the night before. He eats while reading the newspaper or a business journal. He showers, spends a few minutes with his wife and children, and then heads out the door.

His first two meetings or activities were scheduled the day before. After those meetings, he usually swings by the home office—about midmorning—and checks messages or attends meetings that set in motion appointments for the remainder of his day.

Barry’s patterns are highly predictable, and over the months and now years, those patterns have had measurable results in his life. His patterns have produced progress that he can feel and see—and much of that progress happens even before his peers have finished reading the morning paper.

I can hear some of you thinking, “Yeah, Andy. Barry is a go-getter.” That’s only one point to be gleaned from his life. The greater point is this—Barry’s first-things-first approach to a day sets in motion a pattern that continues throughout his day. The positive momentum he creates early in his day cues a productive rest of the day. The truth is this: What you do first matters.

Core Concept: What you do first matters.

Sir Isaac Newton once said, “Objects in motion tend to stay in motion.”

From my perspective and after countless conversations with “go-getters,” I firmly believe that the ideas, actions, thoughts, and feelings that a person sets in motion first thing in the morning tend to not only stay in motion, they have a great likelihood of gaining in momentum throughout a day, especially if those ideas, actions, thoughts, and feelings occur in a rapid sequence.

There Is a Better Way to Start the Day

By the time Barry got to his office, he had already ticked off several important boxes on his list of things to do, and he was geared toward continuing that pace for the next several hours—while his peers were still in the starting blocks looking for their first box to check off!

WHAT BEHAVIORAL MOMENTUM ACCOMPLISHES

Behavioral Momentum is a well-documented theory in the realm of motivation, and it is a key means of increasing “compliance” or “stick-to-it-iveness” in goal setting.

The theory proposes that if you want someone to do a fairly difficult activity, which that person may not initially want to do, then ask the person to do one or two fairly easy activities before you ask him to do the more difficult activity. The person’s success—perhaps even enjoyment at the task or the enjoyment at having accomplished the task—sets up the person to want to continue the success, and to give greater positive effort to accomplishing the difficult task.

Core Concept: Motivation is really momentum in disguise.

In Barry’s case, day after day of successful productivity had a similar momentum effect. Days of high productivity set Barry up for weeks of high productivity, until this pattern became a predictable habit that continually, consistently motivated him to his best behavior with the most positive attitude and most creative ideas. The clients with whom he met, of course, were encountering an upbeat, creative, energized rep—and his overall positive “performance” in their presence encouraged them to buy, and then buy some more!

Behavioral Momentum produces a formula of:

Momentum is a multiplication process. It produces a geometric curve.

I have met dozens of people who tell me that when they began to see real progress toward a new goal they had set for themselves, they began to feel the impact of momentum. They began to think, This makes me feel great! I can do this! Why wasn’t I doing it before? The initial success is both reinforcing and motivating.

But what happens if a person gives up, or falls out of the new routine? The reverse kicks in. It doesn’t take long before a person loses consistency, motivation wanes, and goals fade. Before long the person is thinking, How was I ever able to do that?

THINGS CAN BE TURNED AROUND

Have you ever left a sporting event before the end of the game or competition because one team was getting hammered so badly that the game had become boring? And then, on the drive home, as you turned on the radio to get the final score of what you just knew was a wipe-out, you hear that the losing team is staging an amazing comeback, and one that eventually produces a squeak-by victory in the last seconds?

How could momentum change so quickly?

Have you ever arrived at work feeling energized, positive, focused, and highly motivated—and then reflected later in the day on how rewarding those first few tasks or appointments of your day turned out to be? But then, the next day, you came to work after a rough, perhaps sleepless night, bad traffic problems, angry words with your significant other, and you glare at those in your office, thinking, All these happy people are getting on my nerves!

What makes the difference?

Have you ever wondered how just one negative performance can change your attitude so quickly—and conversely, how one major “score” can create many more positive vibes and even a few more social invitations than you ever thought possible?

Why are people so fickle?

Have you ever wondered how you can feel incredibly cranky toward your child or significant other in one moment, and at the same time feel deep love for that person?

The answer to all of the questions above is this: DO-KNOW-BE.

Core Concept: DO-KNOW-BE

Break it down.

DO

KNOW

BE

What you DO usually starts a cycle that triggers a deeper understanding of what you KNOW (information, ideas, attitudes, feelings), which results in a state of being (your character).

This is counter to what many people...