Isaac Newton’s first law states: An object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion, unless acted upon by an external force. It is up to you and only you to provide that external force.

Have you ever felt ‘out of it’ or ‘unmotivated’? You’re usually a pretty productive person but sometimes it’s harder for you to take action and get shit done. Personally, this happens to me on a Monday after a long weekend of partying and having fun. I am far less likely to feel this way on a Thursday night after having a productive week. Much of that has to do with the amount of momentum I have going for me at the moment.

Chad who has been making consistent progress in the gym for three years has an easier time getting in the gym that night than overweight Billy who is just beginning/getting back into it. Why? Chad has a ton of momentum in that area, he’s accumulated small wins that have added up over time. That’s the same reason Chad can more easily game and talk to that smoke show brunette than Billy. Chad has successfully landed ten lays in the past month, Billy has approached two girls in the past six months. Chad has tons of momentum, Billy has none. If Billy began approaching, pulling numbers and running successful game he too could build the momentum to game that smoke show brunette the same way Chad does.

Allow me to use a recent personal example. This past weekend the weather was exceptionally nice, so instead of being productive like I usually am, I took my foot off the throttle and enjoyed myself. Come Monday morning I wake up to a house messier than I would like, my diet the past few days has been shittier than I would like, and my bank account balance lower than I would like. I didn’t feel like doing shit. I had no momentum. But I forced myself to get my ass up, tidy up and make my nutritious smoothie I missed these past two days. It was hard, it took discipline to hit a heavy leg workout later that day. The following day (yesterday/Tuesday) I woke up feeling a bit more motivated, I was productive and hit another quality workout. By the end of the day, not even 48 hours later I felt immensely better. I was more content with my production, I was at ease and less stressed. I felt good. I had built up some solid momentum.

Elaborating in Newton’s first law, we have inertia which is essentially an objective resisting change, whether that change is starting or stopping a motion. It’s the initial actions that require the most energy and effort. The initial strength it takes to begin pushing a stationary pickup truck is far greater than the strength it takes to keep it going. Take some initiative and power through that initial resistance and build some momentum. Things can seem overwhelming when you’re looking at it from the outside, but when you’re in the thick of it, it’s not so bad. That ten page paper is intimidating when you have zero pages down, but then you enter your flow state and begin typing, before you know it you’re three quarters of the way done.

So get started even if it seems impossible right now. Start building that momentum, get those small wins wherever you can. Clean your room, do your laundry you’ve been putting off, reply to your emails. Gather the mental strength to overcome that inertia and get the pick up truck moving; it’ll be much easier to keep it going once you just begin. Build so much momentum you begin to move mountains.

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EDIT: Fuck, I’ve realized I forgot to add in another section so I’ll just add it down here and let you guys decide how it fits into the post.

How do you explain all of history’s biggest upsets in pro sports? It’s not always the best team that ends up winning the Super Bowl or the Finals. Sometimes it’s the team that has the most momentum that ends up winning.

Those of you who are football fans probably remember the infamous 18-1 patriots in 2007. The first and still, only team in history to go 16-0 in the regular season. Brady and moss smashed all time touchdown records. They were one of the best teams in all of NFL history. Yet, they ended up losing the big game to the 10-6 giants (13-6 entering the SB).

Now there are many reasons this ended up happening, but the biggest one has to do with momentum. The Giants snuck into the playoffs at with a 10-6 record not even winning their division. However, slowly but surely they began accumulating momentum. They got past the wildcard round, then traveled to first seed 13-3 Dallas and somehow pulled off an upset. When the Super Bowl came around, the Giants had pulled off three upsets, the most recent being an overtime win on the road against the Brett Favre led Packers. They had the momentum of an avalanche.

It didn’t matter that the Patriots hadn’t lost a game that season, it didn’t matter what their records were at that point. The Giants had built up so much momentum the past month, they were able to take down the Goliath.