Published: 3/23/2025

“The Dip” – A concept I recently came to know about that I was unconsciously making use of without knowing its actual name. It isn’t a stock market terminology; instead, it is supposed to help you reach your goals. Reaching the end of what you aimed to do is what “The Dip” helps us with. Personally, I used to quit any goal I pursued just due to lack of progress or results. The doubts, the confusion, and the feeling of being directionless were some of my reasons to quit, but over a period of time I came across a mindset and rules that helped me get over these and reach my goals. Let’s discuss one such topic in this week’s blog.

“The Dip” refers to the time period wherein making actions yields less to no results, keeping all else equal. Think of a chart with the y-axis as progress and the x-axis as actions. So as you increase your actions, you would expect to see more progress, and hence increasing the x-axis should increase the y-axis proportionally; instead, something different happens. When you initially start, increasing actions (x-axis) give rise to an increase in progress (y-axis), but after a while, increasing actions lead to a decrease in progress, which we call “the Dip”. Sounds non-intuitive, but hear me out.

While you keep increasing your actions (x-axis), the progress decreases, but only till a point; increasing the actions further gives rise to an increase in progress disproportionately. The curve so made is like a sine wave (maths trigonometry here); the negative part is what we call the dip, and if you are able to sustain this dip without quitting, the process is when you finally reach the end.

Think it through; you pick up something, all excited and motivated to achieve your goal. You start doing the grind, and you see results as well, which further motivates you. You again go with the same intensity, but you see less progress; it seems odd, but you keep trying. The progress/impact seems to decrease; anything you do just seems to give less and less. You start to doubt yourself if you even know what you are doing, if you are even going in the right direction or if what you are doing is even worth it (is this all sounding too familiar? It was a case with me — this makes you give it up to go after something that matches “your type”. The cycle continues, and now you have multiple half-pursued goals and a demotivating attitude.

Want to break this cycle? Consider this.

Instead of quitting, you keep on going — through the doubt, the hesitation, and the lack of results. Each and every time you plan a unit of length, you do it with faith that the action you are taking right now will take you closer towards your end goal. You hold on to the process, and slowly and steadily, you start to see the change in progress. It becomes easier and easier and more rewarding with each action. Also, the motivation to reach the end is substituted by the motivation to just do the small part consistently, and that is where the magic happens! You reach your end goal, all the while enjoying the journey.

In a way, the dip acts out as a filter of people based on their will to do it. The ones who want to reach the end bad enough stay in the act, while the ones who were unsure quit midway. Maybe this is what separates the extraordinary from the ordinary – the sheer choice to stay in the act.

You can see this in real life as well – if you have ever taken a sport or a gym seriously or even been in a long-term relationship, you might observe a similar pattern there as well. Excitement in the beginning, the monotony of the mid and the satisfaction of reaching the end. In each one of these, you would be getting through “the dip” to finally reach your end goal.

This brings us to the end. I hope this blog helped you in some way. Stay tuned and keep learning. :)