Why Making Progress Is the Most Powerful Motivator Achieve your goals one small win at a time.

Long before Festivus and "yada yada" became baked into our cultural lexicon, Jerry Seinfeld was just another comedian, touring the country in hopes of making people laugh. It was during this time that software developer Brad Isaac, then an aspiring comic himself, had the chance to ask Seinfeld if he had any tips. It turns out, he did.

Seinfeld told Isaac that the way to be a better comic was to write better jokes, and the way to write better jokes was to practice every day. His system for holding himself accountable was to use a big wall calendar containing a whole year on one page. For each day he did his joke writing, Seinfeld put a big red X over that day.

"After a few days you'll have a chain," Seinfeld explained. "Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."