The first big victory in my life came at 11, the fifth-grade science fair. Along with the bragging rights over all of my peers came my first trophy and, a little bit of knowledge on the subject of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. The most important one that I’ve continually reminded myself through life, especially during my recovery period, has been the law of inertia.
The law of inertia states that anything in a state of rest, or anything in a state of movement, will continue to rest or move, unless acted upon by some outside force. A ball will continue to roll down a hill until something stops it. A tree will remain standing still until something knocks it down. When I was learning this concept 1987, I had no idea how much I would use it. It’s a terrific motivator when I needed to get off my butt, or when I needed to take a rest.
I’m inertia personified. Maybe that’s because I live with bipolar disorder, but I think we’re all inertia personified. I think life is mostly inertia. When you’re active, working, taking on one task after another, it’s easy to take on the next thing. When you’re laying on the couch, barely active, mind disengaged, it’s challenging to get moving again.
In working with clients, I see this in life, relationships, and treatment in general. It’s easy to ignore the problems in your life or in your marriage. Once you start ignoring, inertia makes it easy to continue putting off a solution. Conversely, once you start the problem-solving process, things begin to change, especially if you make a commitment to yourself/yourselves to keep moving forward.
Personally, I find it too easy to slow down and sometimes grind to a halt. I still use the same rationalization and minimization I did as an addict to justify giving the lawn another day to grow or putting off doing a load of laundry. I also notice, on those days that I give myself that running head start, I can get the laundry done, grass cut and write another entry for this website.
The answer is to have more days of movement than more days of rest. I get more done on a single movement day than I do on five more restful days, and I always feel better at the end of the day for it.
If you’re trying to overcome or improve your life with therapy or coaching, it can’t be a “I’ll get to it when I get to it” activity. I have some clients I’ll see three weeks in a row, then not for a month, then a week, then two weeks off. Of course I try my best with them, but they are not in a constant state of movement about improving themselves.
I get it. Healing and changing your mindset is a long, tough process. Especially if it comes with having to change an ongoing habit. But keeping your mind evolving is just like keeping your body active. If you stop, it’s tougher to start up again.
When I point to my biggest success stories in my work as a coach, it’s the people who have stayed with it on a regular schedule. They’ve committed themselves to moving forward. I think that’s the first step to success with anything in life. Keep moving. It’s amazing how much you can get done.
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