The Progress Principle (DW #954)

communication relationships Jul 08, 2021

Here is one more reason to focus on baby steps.

It is called The Progress Principle.

This is Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer’s The Progress Principle in a nutshell: "Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work."

Amabile and Kramer’s research found that by creating, completing and celebrating "minor milestones" on a journey towards a large goal, employees could keep their motivation high and this greatly impacted their "inner work" lives.

While we often imagine how good it feels to achieve a long-term goal or experience a major breakthrough, we need to recognize that these big wins are great—but they are relatively rare and often far into the future.

While working on a large or long term project or goal, it can be challenging to keep motivation constant and to experience a sense of achievement which feels good.

The Progress Principle tells us that we do not need to wait to complete a large project to feel the positive feelings that comes from achievement. [These positive feelings play a major role in keeping our motivation going to see through a long term project.]

In order to keep going and to keep our motivation high, and foster a regular sense of achievement, we need to create and celebrate small wins on a daily basis.

So, while we are breaking our goals down into bite sized pieces and taking baby steps towards them, please let us remember to create and celebrate minor wins regularly, shall we?

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The Progress Principle (DW #954)

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