Slow Success Strategy
Stretch the climb so trajectory, not position, keeps you satisfied
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 68%
The strategy reframes achievement around trajectory rather than position: being on an upward slope from 300 to 150 feels better than falling from 1 to 2. Because getting things is more enjoyable than having them, and each win merely sets a higher bar, the smart move is to elongate the journey. Instead of jumping from a shabby car straight to your dream car, you take a mid-step and bank satisfaction from it. You chunk large goals into many small destinations, celebrate each micro-win, and deliberately space out big rewards to stretch out anticipation — which is often more pleasurable than arrival. The aim is a slow, steady ramp that maintains a sense of progress across your whole life rather than one spike that leaves you floating with nowhere left to go.
Origin
Chris Williamson coined the term on this 2023 year-in-review episode, synthesising ideas from Jimmy Carr (trajectory over position), Andrew Tate (getting vs having), Adam Mastroianni, and Robert Sapolsky on dopamine as the happiness of pursuit.
Core principles
- 01Trajectory matters more than position — climbing beats having arrived
- 02Getting things is fun; having them is not, so protect the getting
- 03Every accomplishment resets a higher bar you must now clear
- 04Anticipation is often more enjoyable than the experience itself
- 05Life should be lived by design, not by default
How to run it
- 1
Judge yourself by trajectory, not position
Measure success by whether you are climbing rather than by your current rank. Being number 150 on a steep rise from 300 beats being number 2 after falling from number 1.
Pro tip Track your internal 'altimeter' across domains — money, competence, confidence — and reward the upward slope.
- 2
Refuse the single overnight spike
Avoid engineering one enormous leap to the top. A huge spike leaves you asking 'where do I go from here?' with the bar for further growth now punishingly high.
Watch out Winning the lottery is the cautionary case — the best and worst day at once, because no day can top it.
- 3
Chunk the big leap into smaller jumps
When you could jump from the bottom straight to the ultimate prize, deliberately take an intermediate step instead and bank the satisfaction from it before moving on.
Pro tip Ask 'what is the halfway version of this reward?' and take that first.
- 4
Place many micro-destinations along the route
Break long journeys into lots of little way-markers so there is always a nearby milestone to reach, turning one long destination into many short journeys.
Pro tip James Smith reframes 'lose 10kg' as 'lose one kilo, then another, then another'.
- 5
Celebrate each micro-win
Take any excuse to mark a small victory, record, or degree of satisfaction. It need not be a big celebration, just an acknowledgement that chunks the long path into rewarding stages.
Watch out Do not celebrate a fitness milestone with a 3,500-calorie cake that undoes it.
- 6
Protect and stretch the anticipation
Since anticipation often beats the experience, book or set up rewards well in advance so you can savour the run-up. Dopamine is the happiness of pursuit, not the pursuit of happiness.
Pro tip Tim Ferriss booked vacations years ahead to extend the free 'holiday before the holiday'.
In the wild
You get a pay rise that could take you from an old shitbox straight to the ultimate dream car. Instead of the single maximal leap, you buy a good mid-tier car first and take real satisfaction from that jump. Later you make the final jump to the dream car. You have manufactured two distinct hits of progress and satisfaction where a single leap would have given one — and left you wondering what comes after.
→ Two banked spikes of progress instead of one, with a further rung still ahead to climb.
Chris notes that if a podcast episode hits a million plays on day one, it is thrilling — but almost immediately every future video feels unimpressive until it beats 1.1 million. A rapid record becomes a curse: the bar resets higher and satisfaction erodes. The slow-success lens says stretch records out and celebrate incremental gains rather than chasing a spike that poisons everything after it.
→ Reframes a record as a maintenance problem and shifts focus to steady, celebratable increments.
Common mistakes
Chasing overnight success
Wishing for an instant spike means you must immediately beat it or feel like you are declining; slow, consistent progress is a far more reliable source of lasting satisfaction.
Skipping the celebration of small wins
If you never mark the micro-milestones, the journey stays one long undifferentiated slog and you lose the built-in satisfaction that chunking is meant to provide.
Living only for the destination
Since each arrival just starts the next journey, fixating on end-points means you look over the shoulder of the present and never actually experience the progress you are making.
Is it for you?
Best for
Ambitious people prone to hedonic adaptation who hit goals but feel hollow immediately afterwards.
Not ideal for
Situations demanding urgent, one-shot results where deliberately slowing progress would be irresponsible.
From the transcript
“So I came up with this idea of slow success strategy as a way of making sure that you're going in the right direction of…”
“Trajectory is more important than position.”
“Dopamine is not about the pursuit of happiness, it is about the happiness of pursuit.”
From the episode
15 Lessons From 2023 - Jordan Peterson, Alex Hormozi & Elon Musk - #722