What??? A physics lesson! Probably the last thing you expect from me, right?
I admit upfront that I never took physics. It wasn’t required, and that’s a blessing. I’m pretty sure physics would have thrown me to the ground, crushed me flat, and caused me to scream out, “Help! I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”
I never studied the subject but have heard of that Sir Isaac Newton fellow and am familiar with his First Law of Physics, the Law of Inertia, which – in layman’s terms – says, “An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion.”
This morning I was dealing head-on with that “object-at-rest” part of Newton’s law. I didn’t want to do anything. My body was at rest, and I wanted it to stay that way. Do you ever feel like that? You have a long list of things that need to be done, maybe even some things you want to do – things that are fun or might bring you pleasure, but you just don’t want to do them. That was my situation. (Please say I’m not the only one who occasionally experiences this.)
Inertia comes from the Latin word, iners, meaning idle, sluggish, apathetic, lethargic, disinterested. Yep…that was me this morning.
Most of the time I’m an “object-in-motion”. High energy, enthusiastic, excited, busy, working, playing, checking things off my list, getting things done, and not stopping until well into the evening when I fall asleep while watching TV and have to wake up to go to bed. That’s the usual me. But not this morning. Now it’s afternoon, and my body and brain are in motion – at last.
It was made clear to me today that Newton’s First Law applies to people as well as objects and that there are two lessons to be learned. Lesson # 1 – There are times when it’s OK to let inertia work in your favor. Sometimes you need to stop and just be at rest for a while. And Lesson #2 – To get yourself going, to jumpstart yourself into motion, just decide to get up and do something. Do a small task, a simple chore on your list that’s easy to do but one that causes you to feel that you’ve made progress and accomplished something. I’ve discovered that often the hardest part of anything is getting started, firing up your engine, pushing your internal “GO” button.
If you delve a little deeper into Sir Isaac’s First Law, you’ll learn about balanced and unbalanced forces. I don’t understand any of that. But I do know that balance is a state that many of us seek and rarely achieve. Admittedly, I have a bias toward productivity. I believe twe should use our resources – our time, talents, energy, and intellect – to make the most of what life has to offer. But an occasional smattering of stillness can be a very good thing.
Where are you today? Are you in motion or at rest? I’m excited to finally be in motion, and I plan to stay in motion until I fall asleep while watching TV.
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