Momentum Framework
This is the story of how my momentum framework came to be. It’s also a reminder that there is something in you that some people need, and other people find annoying.
It was in the middle of a collaborative workshop design session when it happened. My thought partner wrote a description of what participants could expect. It all sounded wonderful until my attention was snagged by this sentence, “a structured, facilitated experience that gives you permission to slow down without losing momentum.” It’s a feel good sentence that people who are inspired by sentiment might feel motivated by. They’d get the gist and move on.
But my mind gets snagged because I’m motivated and inspired by structure and meaning-making. So, to me, that sentence didn’t reconcile. The inaccuracy made my mind came alive. Some sentiment-inspired people can get a little tired when my mind needs to get a thing right. Thankfully, my collaboration partner was there for it.
I replied:
Here's the thing: you said "permission to slow down without losing momentum" but by very definition, momentum is mass times velocity, and velocity is speed in a given direction. So if we slow down, we change velocity and if we change velocity, we change momentum.
But THAT's the point. Cause slowing down allows for easier course correction. And if things feel too heavy or like they are slowing down then it's important to determine if it's our mass that has changed or if the friction in the direction of movement has changed.
What if plowing through isn’t really the recommended strategy for interpersonal relationships? And what if the answer is actually changing speed or perhaps changing direction in order to achieve goals? What if the answer is slowing down and assessing how to create less friction so that net force doesn’t have to increase?
(I was still in brainstorming mode, so the scientific accuracy of my response wasn’t there yet, either. But staying curious and not believing everything I think is a life practice of mine, so I knew this was an area of discovery for me.)
I thought about momentum as a buzzword in personal and professional development circles. What were the overall sentiments about momentum in business, entrepreneurship, and life coaching? How had I been influenced to think about momentum in my own life through the years? It came down to three types of messages:
1. Momentum = massive, relentless action: The 90s motivational speaker circuit carried forward the message, “Go big or go home.” Amped up by hustle culture, I got the message that there is always more I could be doing. My potential was not being realized unless I had a big vision that became a reality. Momentum was about relentless effort, and if you don't have it, the effort was insufficient.
2. Momentum = a fragile, precious thing you must protect: There’s also a message, “Keep momentum going.” It implies that momentum is everything and it’s something you're always at risk of losing, which would be a failure. And that’s dangerously close to naming you as a failure since you didn’t keep it going. Now you’ve got to put in that massive action to build it back up.
3. Momentum = the reward for starting small and being consistent: A gentler, post-2010s message emerged, “Don't worry about intensity, just show up willing to do one small thing.” Don’t think about it, just do it, and that will build momentum. Because building momentum is still the goal. The vision board still needs to become a reality. So start small, but by God, do something to build the momentum of transformation.
These momentum sentiments guided my life for two decades. I had shown up consistently, done the small things, and my life had still felt heavy. I failed time and again to keep momentum going. I could “go big” for a period of time, and then I’d hit a brick wall of burn out. I felt like I was going in circles.
And it wasn't just me. I started noticing how many of us describe our lives in the language of physics without realizing it:
The weight of the world
Lighten the load
Life is coming at me fast
Speeding toward burnout
Can’t get moving
Rubs me the wrong way
If we talk in physics terms and find motivation in physics concepts, then maybe there’s something more solid than sentiment that I could use to understand what was happening to my energy as I moved through life. Maybe momentum wasn’t a sentiment, but a structure that would inspire, motivate, and encourage me.
After my collaborative partner’s phrase snagged my mind, I spent the next week or so with my nose in my old college textbook from college and several tabs open on the internet. I didn't set out to turn momentum into a framework. I just couldn't let one sentence go.
When I closed the textbooks and shut down the browser tabs, I had something more useful than motivation. I had the actual momentum formula, the variables that truly affect it, and the forces affecting the variables. Mass, velocity, friction, and gravity. The same forces acting on objects are acting on us, too.
The formula doesn't judge us, it just shows us where to look. That one idea was the game changer for me. The formula wasn't going to tell me I wasn't doing enough. It wasn't going to tell me I'd failed to keep momentum going or that I needed to start small and stay consistent. It was just going to show me which variable needed my attention.
Everything from there became a question of application. When my life felt heavy, was the mass actually different, or had friction increased? When I couldn't get moving, was I lazy, or was the gravity of a story pressing down so hard that my system did the only thing it could and stopped? The momentum formula itself didn't give me the answers, but it gave me better questions. And better questions led to better decisions.
I already had a set of practices I'd been living by for years. I'd written about them in my book Unleash: Finding Freedom in Honesty in 2024 and I called them the four-legged framework. They worked. I knew they worked. What I didn't have was a way to share them so someone else could see what was going on in their own life and decide what to do about it. The momentum formula gave me that. If you can see what you're carrying, name the stories making it heavy, and notice where the friction lives, you can choose a practice that helps, without anyone telling you what's wrong with you or what to do.
Boundaries reduce friction and reduce the mass we put on our plate. AND statements release the tension from gravity’s pull. Giving uncertainty space and time gives us a sustainable velocity as we navigate the unknown. And practicing in any amount means that when we stay aware of how much we have to give, and honor our capacity, we take complete control of our momentum.
The momentum framework is a way to understand what’s happening to your energy and the four-legged framework are interventions that help you protect your peace as your momentum fluctuates with the dynamics of life.
I put the frameworks on my website for free. I also built a workbook called The Formula Key for when you want guidance to put it into practice. Sixteen pages, twenty minutes of your time, something you can return to, $7.
If you’re a structure-base person in a sentiment-inspired world, I’ve got you.
~Anita