For the last two years, I’ve been exploring behavioral momentum. Everything I’ve learned is in my new book, The Magic of Momentum: Master Life’s Most Powerful Force and Discover Your Potential.

When you do something, anything, it isn’t just a case of getting a desired result and being done. Rather, every action we take is loaded with invisible threads of momentum that affect us now and later. 

I first learned of momentum’s power when I turned one push-up into a full workout on a day I wasn’t at all motivated to exercise. The momentum of that push-up somehow carried me to where I wanted to go. I couldn’t believe it, because until that point, I had relied exclusively on either motivation (wanting to do it) or willpower (forcing myself to do it) for action. This was different. Despite feeling unmotivated, I was propelled forward.

Momentum is deceptively powerful because it’s an exponential force. To understand just how deceptive exponential forces can be, consider that a penny doubled for 50 days turns into $5.6 trillion, or more than the GDP of every country except the USA and China. One penny! 

Take full responsibility for your future, even if you’ve been a victim.

This idea is not “fair,” as so many things are outside of our control, but it’s strong for one reason—being a victim can’t be a solution.

Victims are powerless by definition. To be a victim means that something happened to you. Victims have no say in it. They can’t change anything. They have no control. To be victimized in any given moment can happen to anyone. But to be a victim for life is a veritable death sentence, and one that we can avoid.

People sometimes get offended by this idea of “taking responsibility” for something that isn’t their fault. Understandably so! But it’s a misunderstanding, because you’re not taking responsibility for the past, you’re doing it for your future.

Taking responsibility isn’t about accepting blame or even being okay with what happened to you. It’s about deciding your path forward. It’s saying, “That happened. Here’s how I’m going to overcome it.”

If you’ve been hurt, or find yourself in a difficult situation, take these words to heart. If you’ve suffered, it may not be your fault, but never let it take your power away. Own your situation and move forward from here. You’ll be glad you did.

Number 1 – Start. Even if you think the first effort is going to go poorly. You will improve in time through experience, but you won’t get any experience if you don’t start. The worst thing you can do is try to perfect yourself before attempting. Getting everything right is not as important as making progress.

There’s a story that has circulated on the internet for years about a man who sued his wife for being ugly. According to the always-truthful internet, the wife had extensive plastic surgery to become beautiful, they married, and she gave birth to an ugly baby. Afterwards, he found out she was ugly and had surgery, sued for deceit, and won $120,000. Snopes, which is also a part of the internet, claims this story is false.

While probably false, this story is very interesting to me. It clearly intends to send a message about the danger and folly of vanity, but there are layers to this story!