Want to Grow Faster in 2023? Mark the Moment
Whitney Johnson
Learning is the oxygen of human growth. Learn along with me on the Disrupt Yourself podcast.
The year 2022 is almost over.?
The end of one year and the beginning of the next is a milestone. It’s a time to acknowledge the year's passing and pause. To celebrate. To reflect on how far we’ve come. To set goals for the future
Then, life happens. For many of us, we get to February, and we’re no longer going to the gym, our strategic plan has a fine layer of dust coating it, and we haven’t read any of the books on cryptocurrency we bought on January 1.?
We don’t celebrate that we lost two pounds, that we built out an operational plan, or that we can now define cryptocurrency with 95% accuracy.?
We hit turbulence, and instead of noting the wins we were able to accomplish anyway, we let ourselves believe it was a win-or-lose situation, and we lost.?
But we didn’t lose. We made progress, learned, and grew, but we were too focused on other things to notice.
So, how do you discern progress even when it is slow, difficult, and different than you anticipated?
You mark the moment.
In theater, marking the moment is “a dramatic technique used to highlight a key moment in a scene.” Think of it as using a spotlight to focus our attention.
In our non-theatrical endeavors, we might equate this to mindfulness—with a twist.
While mindfulness is being fully present and aware of where we are and what we’re doing, marking the moment is being fully present and focusing our attention on the successes we’ve experienced.??
It’s celebrating the small wins
Studies have found that celebrating even small milestones helps activate the parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. It induces a state of calm and confidence. We feel that whatever we are about to do, we can do.
Leading behavioral scientist, B.J. Fogg, explains this link between emotions and habits. He explains that change and growth are promoted through positive emotions more than through disciplined practice. Celebrating small wins stimulates dopamine release
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But marking the moment doesn’t just allow us to see and celebrate how far we’ve come.?
It is giving us the momentum to keep moving forward.?
Our S Curve of Learning—the S-shaped growth map—is a powerful tool to help us visualize and understand the growth journey. But, our lives consist of a portfolio of S Curves—a group of growth journeys that range in type, difficulty, and size. Far too often, we only focus on the biggest, toughest S Curve in our portfolio. Curves like becoming a CEO, buying a new house, or releasing a new product.
We forget about the significant micro curves that make up each macro curve.?
When we pause to celebrate, we remind ourselves and others that although we are at a launch point—the beginning phase—of a macro S Curve, we are also in the mastery phase of at least one of its micro curves.?
We have summited a mountain, and it doesn’t need to be Everest for us to mark the moment. We should celebrate the moment early and often. Maintain motivation by spotlighting even small summits scaled.
When we mark the moment with the smaller S Curves, we consistently have reasons to celebrate throughout the year and to see the progress we are making up our macro curves.?
This year brought change and disruption, and I’m sure 2023 will also. But, if you mark the moments and shine a spotlight on your successes, no matter how small, you will be able to harness external disruption
What is something you accomplished today? This week? This month?
Who helped you reach this milestone?
How have you grown?
I’m excited to announce that Disruption Advisors is launching a new Certification program for coaches and leaders. This highly interactive, experiential, and informative program teaches you how to support others as they navigate individual and organizational growth using our Smart Growth framework and S Curve Insight tool! When you finish, you’ll be able to bring the Smart Growth framework into your organization and/or your coaching practice. Learn more here.
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2 年Although it took me many years to understand, the meaning of small wins is exponential to the leadership and the staff.
Co-Founder, Deeper Coaching Institute, co-creator, Deeper Coaching Certification, divisions of On Global Leadership, Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches member, author, "Just Listen"
2 年This is wonderful Whitney Johnson about marking the moment. Reminds me of an interview by Mark C. Thompson with Jeff Immelt about how to get promoted (or fired) faster (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGj9lS8tyOs) and Jeff mentioned focusing on what you're doing as if you'll be doing it all your life vs. always racing ahead and losing focus. I think what he was implying is that it's best to become excellent at something which requires your focusing on it. That's because many people are more impressed with excellence than what you're excellent at. You don't have to like basketball to be impressed by the excellence of Steph Curry. When you're truly excellent at something, people who are impressed with that will ask you what else you're excellent at or who else you might know who is excellent.
Absolutely! Feelings drive our actions and inaction.
Host, Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel | Senior Editor at Large @ LinkedIn
2 年I love the idea here of marking the moment, of embracing the optimism that allows us over time to believe that we can change, that we are capable of it.
Illinois State University, a NCAA Division I institution, member of the Missouri Valley Conference invites applications for the position of Graduate Assistant for Redbird Productions within the department of Athletics.
2 年Inspiration is a person, progress and development towards the front and innovation of many things and prosperity in our social and cultural lives. A person always needs stimulation in things that preserve our planet and the earth in which we live.. ?But there is no tourism without the environment and survival. But we remember necessary things first, then tourism, in order to live in peace and security beginning year there is if you are a fan with your team in your city and you dream that you can achieve your dream of winning the championship and the real competition for all the competing clubs and there is always between what you do loyalty and friendliness to a team in the days holidays a year and you enjoy .. Certainly, at the beginning of a new year, the pleasures are real and there Tourism travels outside your country to discover tourist attractions or discover cities, gardens, mountains and highlands Quality, yes, survival first, then we look for things for life's pleasures. Private people always need a person to motivate themselves in education and encouragement, whether by financial rewards for a beautiful wife and a house for a generation, an academic degree, a medal of achievement or fame, or special support.