"The Force of Inertia"

“All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right about face which turns us from failure to success.”

Dorothea Brande

I’m taking an online class and I heard a phrase I’d never heard – the force of inertia.  I’d never considered inertia a force before.  Inertia means lack of energy or lack of movement.  So how could it be a force?  Perhaps it’s a force like boredom, laziness, procrastination, fear, regret, negativity, or anything else that keeps me from being productive.  As Sir Isaac Newton stated, “Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest.” 

Stated another way, “The more I do, the more I do.”  The opposite is true.  “The less I do, the less, I do.”  Right now I am on vacation.  It would be easy to do little or nothing.  I could sit around and read comic books and watch movies, and take naps.  It sounds horrible.  I learned a long time ago that I if I don’t create structure in my day, if id don’t get things done, I am irritable and depressed.  Inertia’s force doesn’t let me go.  It is like a spell, as Dorothea Brande says.  More accurately, it’s like a curse.   It keeps me down.  The only thing I can do to fight it is to take action.

I need structure.  I need to be productive. 

I also need Purpose.  I once heard a story of prisoners in a Communist gulag who were forced to move rocks in wheelbarrows back and forth all day long.  Some prisoners began going insane, because there was no purpose to this.  We need Purpose.  Brian Tracy calls this a teleological need, the need to have a goal and a purpose.

Finally, I need to have goals.  I may not reach 650 blogs in the next three weeks, but I’m sure I could reach 625.  I’m sure I could do the following by the time my break is up:

·      Walk at least 30 hours

·      Write 100 more blogs.

·      Do 40 more radio shows.

·      Put 20 more things on eBay.

·      Read for 20 hours.

·      Reduce my debts by 20% or more.

That’s enough.   The next few weeks of my life are set.  And I need to start now, today.  I can’t wait until the last minute.   All of these goals are challenging but reasonable.  So I’m going to finish this blog and then I’m going on the next thing.  I feel motivated and excited now.  I feel happy.  Here’s the best part.  Even if I don’t reach all or any of these goals, I will have been successful as long as I have done my best.  When working towards goals, not succeeding is not the same as failing.  Not trying is the same as failing.  But unless something incredibly unpredictable occurs I plan on succeeding in all my goals.

By the way, those goals are my minimum.  I hope to do more in each category.

There’s nothing that I wrote that’s impossible.  None of it is necessarily easy, but none of it is impossible.  All I need to do is Get Started and Keep Going.