What One Trick Can you Use to Overcome Inertia?
Today marks another round of Life List Club blog hopping! I’m super-excited to welcome Diana Ligaya of Regimented Creativity as a guest poster. Diana is going to discuss the ways inertia can work against us when we’re working towards goals, and give us a single tip to help us beat it.
I’m visiting Jennie Bennett’s blog: A Book, A Girl, A Journey (two times in a row – so lucky!). Feel free to check out my post called: “Have You Ever Lied About Your Goal Progress?” (I have, and I felt terrible about it.)
Without further ado, here’s Diana!
Fighting Inertia
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/shadow
The law of inertia states that a body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion. While the laws of inertia are most readily applied to physical objects, the same can also be said for intangibles like life goals as well.
Setting a goal is easy; achieving that goal is another thing altogether. For many, taking that first step towards achieving those goals means overcoming the inertia that roots you right where you are. Overcoming inertia is the most difficult part of the process, especially when you want to make a major change in your life.
Sometimes to overcome inertia when it comes to our goals, we try to give ourselves a jump-start. Jump-starts are fast way to attempt to overcome inertia but the wrong jump start can be detrimental.
The wrong jump-start may cause us to push too hard at the beginning or set a pace that we simply cannot maintain. For example, you may want to lose 10 lbs in two weeks or perhaps set a high word count when setting a writing goal. Crash dieting could help you meet that impossibly high weight loss goal in two weeks but would also leave your body unhealthy. You could write like a fiend to meet your goal but you may find that you have sacrificed quality for quantity.
In the end, you have to ask yourself: are those types of jump-starts worth it?
When overcoming inertia, think about what will benefit you the most in the long run. For many things, starting slow and making small changes over a longer period of time is more beneficial in the long run. For example, making small changes in the way you eat can help you lose weight. You won’t lose 10 pounds in two weeks but you can lose that same amount of weight over a longer period in a healthier manner, giving your body and mind time to adjust before going further. By lowering your word count expectations and instead modifying your writing goals to something more tailored to your work style and project, you may discover that you’re creating higher quality work than you were before.
Starting slower and then ramping up helps put inertia on your side. Remember, a body at rest tends to stay at rest while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. A slow start helps you build up speed in a way that is far more attainable and controllable. Starting slow helps you get used to moving toward you goal, helps you see the obstacles in front of you and adjust accordingly. A jump-start may look like it is helping you toward your goal but when an obstacle arises, the wrong type of jump-start may leave you unable to properly handle or deal with the obstacles that are sure to come your way.
Is inertia on your side or working against you? Have you ever tried to jump-start your way to a goal and failed? Or succeeded? What are your tips for shocking your body out of ‘rest’ mode?
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/shadow
Bio: Diana Ligaya has been fascinated with science and technology ever since she could remember. Her voracious appetite for stories and thirst for adventure led her to explore the infinite worlds of speculative fiction.
She loves everything from hard science fiction to post-apocalyptic dystopias and everything in between. She prefers to mix aspects of sub-genres within her work rather than sticking to a “standard” genre framework. When she’s not working on her fiction credits, Diana works from home as a freelance writer, specializing in technology. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, their daughter and their mutt.
I’ve tried the jumpstart method (in writing and other parts of life) and I always seem to be disappointed if I can’t keep that level of momentum.
I find the slow and steady approach works. And then sometimes, being slow and steady I hit the occasional downhill slope. :)
It’s a fine balance isn’t it, wosushi! I find as long as I have a plan I’m usually pretty good at sticking to it. I can go crazy and jump-start something for a deadline, but it’s never sustainable.
Thanks for dropping by!
The jumpstart method generally doesn’t work as well for me as the starting slow and revving up mode. Perhaps the one exception to that is when I’m working on a short story, and get that burst of inspiration that simply must ride itself out for hours and hours on end. With anything but writing, if I put too much into it right off the bad, I tend to grow bored or feel like its taking too much away from the rest of my life and quit. Guess I’m a “slow and steady wins the race” kind of girl because I like to make progress and smell the flowers at the same time : ). Great post!
Yes! Very good point, Pam. My short stories usually come in bursts too.
I often think upon the law of inertia, and how it relates to achieving long-term goals. Although I admit I didn’t realize it was called that. The jumpstart method works well on short-term goals for me, but long-term life changes require the slow-and-steady approach. It takes a while for me to let things sink in :)
Great point: The jump-start method can be really useful for small goals that don’t require a lot of long-term work, but when it comes to longer-term, life goals, slow-and-steady definitely seems to be best.
I agree. I’m all about the baby steps. It’s better to get started with a tiny goal than never to get started at all. That’s my theory anyway. :D
I totally agree, Sonia! A step is a step, whether it’s baby-sized or not.
My inertia is working against me at the moment. I’m hoping with some time off I’ll be able to recharge and come back at writing with a vengeance. I love Marcia’s idea at my guest post about blogging ahead to give herself time to write her WIP and be with family. That’s my next game plan.
Blogging ahead sounds like a fantastic plan, but I haven’t been disciplined enough to pull it off yet. I’m off to read Marcia’s post for some tips!
My best way out of inertia is to make it fun. Ex: Exercise.
I’m not a Goddess in Training (Jess!) but the best way for me to get into exercise is either dance (Zumba satisfies my dance crave) or kickboxing (what could be better than punching someone??). Riding the bike and lifting a few weights doesn’t even compare if I have the chance to dance or kick some a$$. I’m just sayin.’
Inertia can be a challenge, however there may be things you can do to make it easier on yourself. In a physics analogy you could use potential energy. For example start at the top of the hill.
In goal setting it might be put yourself in the right environment or in collaboration with the right people.
Great point David! Collaboration and support are a huge part of goal setting for me too. Thanks for your comment.