Velocity Made Good

A client shared something with me recently that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. It’s a sailing term: velocity made good.

Now, I’m not a sailor, but this one hit home in a big way.

Let's break it down.

Velocity means the speed of something in a given direction. But speed alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Velocity made good is about how much of your movement is actually getting you closer to your destination - your real goal.

You could be moving fast in all directions, doing a hundred things, chasing down progress and still not getting anywhere that matters to you. Instead you could be moving slowly, even awkwardly, and every inch of it is taking you somewhere meaningful.

Life is Going to Continue to Happen

Sometimes the wind is right and you can head straight toward what you want. And sometimes the wind picks up and just propels you in a direction that is so far off course. The speed is there, the momentum is there and that feels pretty good, but you're not heading anywhere near where you want to be.

Instead, let's incorporate the idea of Velocity Made Good.

When the wind picks up and starts pushing the boat around, sailors will "tack", or zigzag back and forth. This let's them take advantage of the strong wind without getting pushed too far off. This also means that you aren't following a straight path to your destination - and that is more than okay.

When you’re "tacking" you’re zigzagging. You’re shifting angles, adjusting your sail, doing things that look and maybe even feel inefficient from the outside. But in reality, they turn out to be just the forward momentum you need.

I think about this a lot when I hear someone say they “should be doing better” or “shouldn’t still be struggling.” I hear it when people are working on impulses, or stress, or emotional eating. When they’ve made huge shifts and still feel like they’re failing because they haven’t landed in the perfect place yet.

But here’s what I’ve learned, over and over again: progress doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. Sometimes it’s putting away two dishes when you meant to clean the kitchen. Sometimes it’s just noticing the thought, the feeling, or the reaction - even after the fact. 

And sometimes it’s just floating. Not trying to fix anything, or do anything, or force anything. Just resting and letting the wind settle. And even that is moving you towards your goal. That’s velocity made good.

How Hypnosis Helps

If any of this feels familiar and you feel like you're in one of those zigzag seasons, try this:

Start noticing the tiny wins. It might be the small pivots, or the moments you almost did the old thing, but didn’t. Maybe you noticed how you did it differently, or even just saw it for what it was.

Those moments matter. A lot.