Sir Isaac Newton was a pretty smart guy; inventing calculus, elucidating gravity, and never getting married are just a few examples of his genius. Aside from getting hit on the head with an apple, he’s also famous for his three laws of motion. Almost everyone seems to know at least a little about these laws, and they have played an important role in the development and improvement of science and technology since their inception.

The first of Newton’s laws is often referred to as the law of inertia. This has been described in various ways with various wordings, but the definition I’m going to use is this one from The Physics Classroom:

“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 unbalanced force.”

While this principle obviously applies to objects from a physics standpoint, it also applies to us as people (not just from a physics standpoint).

I’m fairly confident most of us have had moments or days or weeks in which we have a terribly hard time finding the motivation or the discipline to get out of bed or off the couch and tackle the activities of life. When we’re at rest we tend to stay at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. Inversely, when we’re energized and working hard and getting stuff done, it can sometimes be hard to stop, especially if we’re enjoying what we’re doing; when we’re in motion we tend to stay in motion.

Our motivational state depends on the forces acting on us, and we determine which forces act the most strongly. We do this based on what we give our time and attention to: friends, family, the news, fear, attractive individuals, etc. The more time and attention we give, the stronger the force and the greater the influence. If we always spend time with people who want nothing more than to sit in front of the TV for days, we tend to become people who want nothing more than to sit in front of the TV for days. If we spend all day on social media, we tend to develop the same attitudes and views as those we follow (even if we think we’re immune to it), and act accordingly.

No matter the influences we surround ourselves with, however, we are always the strongest force in our life. We still experience other influences, and they do affect our trajectory, but the course of our life is largely dependent on our own efforts or the lack thereof. This isn’t always clear, and sometimes we may feel we are bound under the influence of some other force that we cannot conquer (depression, anxiety, sickness/disease, addiction), but it is true. This isn’t to say these other influences aren’t strong; indeed they are some of the strongest forces we feel, but history is full of great men and women who have faced these forces and overcome them, through their own force of will (Theodore Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and Winston Churchill all come to mind, among many others).

We, too, have this power. We are the ones who decide if we’re going to succumb to the inertia of nothing and stay on our couch all day, or if we’re going to fight it and do the things we really, deeply want to do. We determine the speed with which we move, and the direction we’re travelling, even when unexpected events temporarily move us off course. Sometimes we find that the course we are pursuing isn’t the best one, and unless we do something about it, inertia ensures that we will stay on that path. It takes effort and courage to get our lives onto the path that will lead us to the greatest happiness and satisfaction, and sometimes it may seem like the obstacles in our way are insurmountable, but they are not. As Ella Wilcox wrote,

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent, or hinder, or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing, will alone is great,
All things give way before it, soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?

Each will-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction, serves
The one great aim.
Why, even death stands still
And waits an hour, sometimes, for such a will.

“Will” by Ella Wilcox

• Uncategorized