People At Rest Tend To Stay At Rest

Brandon Brown
Jul 27, 2017 · 4 min read

Newton penned the best life advice and we’ve all missed it. You may know the soundbite version: A body at rest tends to stay at rest. However, the bit in the middle is where the real power lies:

Every body continues in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a right line unless it is compelled to change that state of motion by forces impressed upon it.

Unless it is compelled to change. Doesn’t that resonate? Think of how you choose where your time is spent as a conscious piece of this universe. Would the universe be proud to have you as a sensory organ or would it compel you to change?

Change has a few definitions here: a change in direction, a change initiating motion, or a change ending motion. These three simple processes explain why many people seem to get 10 lifetimes worth of work done in one while others talk about doing yet never do.

A Change in Direction

Everywhere you look today, you’ll see articles, videos, news clippings, and conversations about the end of menial work. The robots are going to take it all. Startups are going to disrupt everything with algorithms and caffeine.

While this may sound a bit gloom and doom, it does seem like the natural next steps as our culture becomes more engrossed with technology. If automation is threatening your livelihood, what more will it take to compel you towards change?

People complain about hard-working old-industry jobs losing clientele, unable to compete with larger companies, cemented against changing waves of industries and policies around them yet unwilling to consider change for themselves. How they have gone years or even decades knowing this is coming yet have remained stead-fast against a new direction to support themselves is confounding.

Everyone’s favorite go-to today is “learn to code!” While it is a fantastic career and hobby to pursue it isn’t for everyone, no matter how loudly the tech education startups will tell you otherwise.

However, there are a universal ton of jobs around the technology industries that do not require coding. Think of what you know in a different context as a first step towards a change in direction. With hardware about to be the drive behind innovation again, support jobs across many fields are going to be necessities for businesses of every size.

Motion Coming to an End

On the flip side is something we’ve all had to fight at some point — you may even be fueling it right now while reading this article. Procrastination is a form of motion, just not applied in a way meaningful to you. Why allow yourself to expend energy in a way that doesn’t contribute to future you?

Procrastination brings a certain danger. Allowing the friction of mismanaged energy to build up will run the risk of bringing you full stop. We all need breaks so this is not me pushing an always-on work ethic on you but to consider the cost to your goals when you allow procrastination to take over. What will compel you to push distractions aside and keep focused?

I’ve heard many people call this compelling force their why. For example “my family is why I do this work” or “my health is why I won’t eat that taco.” Where many people fail with this tactic is reminding themselves of this mighty driving force behind them. If your why is your family, spend meaningful time with them. Your why is a hobby? Stop reading this article and go do your thing! Your why is a motor that you need to refuel or it won’t help you to do the work.

Sometimes you’ll need to force yourself to pause and avoid the setting in of burnout. This one is hard to come back from. Burnout seems to flare up when you don’t have a larger cause to your work or when you get stuck in the details and minutia of day to day work. This slow drag of auto-pilot living will eventually bring you to lose sight of why you started. Find the larger meaning for your work and you will gain the energy to keep your motion true. I hear vacations work well for this, too.

Setting Yourself in Motion

Start. Write that first sentence of your next blog post. Get some bad code written to learn that new language. Walk into the gym. Read a page in that book you’ve had sitting on the shelf for years. Once you start it’s that much harder to stop.

Sometimes you’ll need to be your own compelling force. You won’t be forced into a circumstance requiring your effort, your why might not be strong enough in every moment, there may not be a larger meaning to fuel your work but there’s work to do and the only way to get it done is to get started.

Nothing will happen if you don’t do the work. Go do the work. Want an interview with the hot new startup? Do the work. Want to look like you just stepped off set of the latest Marvel movie? Do the work. Want to increase your social circles? Do the work. Want to leave your manual labor job? Do the work. The laws of the universe are stronger than you, so play by its rules. If you want something to happen, set it in motion.

Brandon Brown

Written by

Certified Personal Trainer with experience as a Designer, Web Developer, Educator, and being a Girl-Dad.

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