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Your Momentum Check
WHERE'S THE FRICTION?
Your answers suggest friction may currently be showing up between intention and action.
You may know what you want to do, why it matters, and even have a clear plan.
Yet the action still doesn’t consistently happen.
It’s easy to assume:
I need more discipline.
But there may be another question worth asking:
Is the intention actually executable?
Sometimes, the problem isn’t knowing what to do. It’s translating that intention into an action that can realistically happen in your week.
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An intention and an executable action are not the same thing
Consider:
Work on the proposal.
It sounds actionable, but when, where, for how long, and what counts as starting?
Compare that with:
Tuesday at 8:00 am, spend 30 minutes drafting the three section headings. If that time disappears, use Wednesday morning as a fallback.
The goal hasn’t changed. The design has.
Sometimes, what feels like a motivation problem may actually be an action-design problem.
INTENTION
“Work on the proposal.”Â
EXECUTABLE ACTION
“What + when + where + minimum version + fallback.”
THE ACTION TEST
- WHAT? What exactly will I do? Could someone observe whether it happened?
- WHEN? When specifically will it happen?
- WHERE? Where will I be?
- HOW MUCH? What is the minimum version that still counts?
- THEN WHAT? If the original time disappears, what happens next?
Take one vague intention and rewrite it until those five questions have answers.
Then test it.
What To Notice
Do not simply mark the task complete or incomplete.
Notice:
- Did making the action clearer change how easy it was to start?
- Did the planned time actually fit your week?
- Was the minimum version useful when circumstances changed?
- If the action still did not happen, what seemed to get in the way instead?
- Did the friction move somewhere else in the process?
If the action still does not happen, that does not prove the experiment failed.
It gives you better information about where to look next.
That is much more useful than repeatedly demanding more discipline from yourself without changing anything else.
WTF?
Where’s the Friction?
It’s a slightly cheeky shorthand for a question worth asking more often.
When something important isn’t moving, it’s easy to blame motivation or discipline.
Why can’t I just do it?
Instead, ask:
WTF? Where’s the friction?
Friction can appear anywhere between deciding what matters and actually following through — in prioritising, taking action, adapting when things change, or recovering when you’re knocked off course.
Your result simply gives you one place to start looking.
That’s the thinking behind Momentum
I’m Amir Salem.
A lot of my work has involved psychology, behaviour change, achievement, and working with people carrying significant responsibilities.
One of the questions I have become increasingly interested in is:
What actually happens between knowing something matters and consistently moving it through real life?
Capable people do not necessarily get stuck because they do not care.
And the answer is not always more motivation.
Sometimes the plan does not fit reality. Sometimes friction was not anticipated. Sometimes circumstances change and we do not notice quickly enough. Sometimes we notice, but do not adapt. And sometimes one disrupted week quietly becomes stopping altogether.
That is what led me to build Momentum.
Not another system built on the assumption that everything will go according to plan.
A system for getting better at noticing what actually happens, responding to it, and learning from it.
What if you became better at noticing earlier?
Not perfectly disciplined. Not impossible to derail.
Just better at noticing when something isn’t working.
Identify the friction earlier.
Adjust before abandoning the plan.
Recover more deliberately when you’re knocked off course.
And each time, learn a little more about what helps you make meaningful progress.
Join me for the free Momentum Workshop
Why Good Intentions Lose Momentum
Bring one meaningful priority you would genuinely like to move forward.
During this free workshop, I will teach you the broader Momentum model and we will look at:
- where friction can appear between intention and progress
- why motivation is not always the most useful place to intervene
- what happens when a good plan meets real life
- how to notice earlier when something is not working
- how to use what happens as information for what to try next
Most importantly, you will not just listen.
You will apply the thinking to your own priority and leave with one practical experiment to test afterwards.
The workshop is designed to be useful whether or not you decide to take Momentum any further.
Bring one priority. Let’s find the friction.
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Momentum is a non-clinical coaching and educational program. It does not provide psychological assessment, diagnosis or treatment.