Perfection kills progress. What matters is reaching critical project mass.

I've found that once my projects and endeavors reach what I call critical project mass—enough momentum, thought, and work—they begin to take care of themselves. Suddenly, I'm working consistently without the internal teeth-pulling.

I love impulsively signing up for life-changing commitments, and I recommend it completely. No, I am not talking about putting your 401K on black at the casino. Placing a deposit on my first hunting dog, signing up for marathons, or entering jiujitsu tournaments—I make these commitments with just enough thought to act, because overthinking would kill them.

Immediately after signing up for these, there's work to do. Sometimes this is a lot of work, and the end result is scary to look right in the eye, and the work to get there is not very exciting. One shortcut, when trying to kick up some motivation, is not to look to the finish line, but to look forward to the point in time where you reach a critical mass in your project. You've been running consistently every week enough to prepare for the marathon or maybe you've been working on your personal application project every weekend for the last few months. That is what's important, dream about that, not the marathon, not finishing the app—trust yourself that will get done on game day.

What do I say when I mean dream about that? Instead of staring off into the distance with our sappy smiles, dreaming about winning the marathon, instead, try changing that dream to be that version of yourself who has been running consistently for a few weeks. Easier right? And for me, just as fulfilling.

It all circles back to enjoying the journey, which is something I love. We don't know how much time we have left. We must consistently remember that life, and everything we strive for within it, is about enjoying it the most in the here and now. The medals, certificates and whatever else are just window dressing, never guaranteed and usually end up in a closet anyways.

Every new endeavor is a dance between romanticizing the result and (hopefully) falling in love with the journey instead. The key is to try and fall in love with the journey early—by reaching that critical mass point where momentum carries you forward.