Carpe Momentum #296

In our last couple +1s we created some momentum with Newton’s First Law. 🤓

Here’s another angle on the same idea.

This is from Harvey Dorfman, who was one of the world’s top mental training coaches. He earned World Series rings as the mental training coach for the Oakland A’s and the Florida Marlins. In his old-school Bible for Coaching the Mental Game, he tells us that we, as elite athletes of our lives, want to seize the moment.

Of course, we’ve talked about that a bunch of times but he introduced a new Latin phrase for it that I like: Carpe momentum.

Carpe momentum. ← Seize the moment!

What I like about that made-up Latin phrase is that you can see the fact that when you seize the MOMENT, you create MOMENTUM.

Show up moment to moment to moment. And what do you get? Momentum momentum momentum!

Lost your momentum? No problem. Seize the moment and get it going again.

The specific way that Dorfman coaches his athletes to seize the moment? He calls it “task execution.” If you study mental toughness in sports that’s a common theme.

The best mental toughness coaches always tells us that we want to eliminate all our thoughts about the past and all our thoughts about the future and simply EXECUTE THE TASK AT HAND.

Carpe momentum style. One task at a time.

Of course, that’s precisely what the best spiritual coaches tell us as well. Whether that’s Eckhart Tolle walking us through The Power of Now or Byron Katie telling us that life never gives us more than ONE thing to do in any given moment — our challenge is to simply focus on THIS MOMENT.

Carpe momentum. Execute the task at hand.

Today’s +1. What task do you need to execute right now? Get on that.

And consider making that your mantra-question today whenever you find yourself getting distracted by thoughts about the past or the future.

Practice it moment to moment to moment and you might just enter the Optimizing Hall of Actualizing Awesome.