“How much of what you did today was simply due to inertia? Never get so busy that you forget to actively design your life.”
Steph Smith, Twitter
If you were to run a mile, which step would be harder to take—the first step or the last one? I would argue the first. Even though your muscles would be more fresh, it’s your mind and body that would be stale. You have to overcome a state of inactivity before running (or any other activity) and the physics is clear: starting is the hard part.
Don’t you remember this lesson from Physics class? This concept is usually taught with small moveable objects: it’s easier to keep a body in motion than it is to start a stopped body. Well, the same goes for your body. Inertia is the state of inactivity—dormancy—that works to keep your body at rest while you’re resting. Inertia is the heaviness, the resistance, the drag you feel right before you get up to move.
And many times, inertia wins. And more often than you might care to admit, inertia dictates what you actually end up doing each day. Because we humans prefer the path of least resistance and most of the time, that ends up being no path at all. Preoccupied on our phones, distracted by our laptops, busy trying to keep ourselves busy—we find ways to stay put so we don’t have to move our stopped bodies.
But, here’s the thing: we can make starting easier. We can plan our days; block out time; commit to a schedule; minimize the friction of starting; stack a new habit on top of an old one; carry momentum from one task to another; learn to say “no” to unimportant tasks; surround ourselves with people already doing the desired task; find an accountability partner; start a progress journal; ask for help; research ideas.
Never get so busy losing to inertia that you forget to actively design the life you actually want to live.