Most of us blame inertia for not doing something or for not even feeling up to doing something, I ruminated on the negative spell this Newtonian Law of Physics seems to exert on peoples psyches all around.
It dawned upon me this morning that inertia is not responsible for only this pathetic apathetic state of mind. It can as easily be tapped positively so that we end up doing a lot of things beneficial to ourselves or others.
In fact, millions have done it (and continue to do so) under various garbs.
What is inertia? To paraphrase Newton, "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction - unless acted upon by an external force".
This is as true for human minds and bodies too. In fact, to a lesser degree, it is true for human emotions too.
We see the victims all the time - sedentary people continue to revel in it day in and day out, alcoholics and other addicts continue to be so and so forth.
To a lesser degree, we also see the opposite - fitness fanatics cannot stop exercising, those who follow strict practice-ethics would often be hard pressed to stop practicing and so forth. These are the beneficiaries of positive inertia.
At a slightly macro level, we see teams that have developed a systematic habit of winning over time are unstoppable during their streak and vice-versa. Same goes for countries that have developed or developing. The latter tend to stay in their side of the court for decades or even centuries at times...
How to build positive inertia: The key is to get out of negative inertia first. This will take us to a neutral zone - if not anything more. From here on, one can work towards building a momentum in positive things - be it practice or exercise or academic pursuits or something as simple as getting up early in the morning. After a few days or weeks, positive inertia kicks in and takes over. From here on it is generally smooth sailing. For instance, someone who has got into the habit of getting up at 4 am can more often than not do it even if he or she slept in very late on certain days. Someone who has got used to practicing music for 4 (or 8 or any number of) hours will find ways to do it even if there are other unavoidable engagements on certain days.
All these are results of inertia - which, at the end of the day is only a neutral thing. It is entirely we who make it positive or otherwise...
Perspectives on music and other subjects from math through sports to philosophy.
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