the inertia effect
how physics is making you a lazy fuck
some days everything feels heavy.
even the things i love — art, reading — feel impossible.
yet, every time I’m engaged — i feel great.
so these aren’t even things that only feel good after.
i actually enjoy them.
so what's the problem?
why was i avoiding the things i love?
finally, I realized — it isn't about the task at all.
it's fucking physics.
Inertia
after studying this phenomenon in my own life and talking with others, it was clear.
it wasn’t the activities — it was the starting that felt impossible.
before you get started with your activity, in a way, you’re standing still.
you’re not progressing in that activity, you haven’t started.
this reminded me of the one physics class where i wasn’t asleep —
the law that all of us feel, yet none of us name:
Inertia
/ɪˈnəːʃə/“The natural tendency of objects in motion to stay in motion and objects at rest to stay at rest.”
or
“An object’s resistance to change in motion.”
our minds might not be objects, but they behave the same.
if you sit on your ass all day, the tendency will be to keep sitting.
if you’ve gotten drunk every evening, the tendency will be to continue.
if you’ve been procrastinating, the tendency will be to continue.
now do you notice something about the examples?
all the examples I gave were pretty passive/comfortable activities.
apart from your own conscience — nothing's stopping you from overdoing it.
you could easily sit on your ass all day, drink & procrastinate.
the same can’t be said about exercise.
when exercising, the tendency definitely still is to continue,
but eventually fatigue will interfere and slow you down to a halt.
Inertia keeps your state the same as long as nothing stronger interferes.
so if you want to change your state, you just have to beat Inertia.
if changing really is that simple, why does it feel impossible?
why the fuck is it so hard to shift gears?
terrible transitions
shifting activities often feels like getting pulled out of a warm bed at 4 AM to go skinny dipping in Iceland.
especially with the way our minds compare the suck to the comfort we were in before.
stopping power
if you’re having issues with procrastinating or not being consistent enough, chances are you’re engaged in easier activities.
instead of running, you might be eating.
instead of lifting, you might be scrolling.
so before you can start your desired activity, you need to quit your current one.
this is where you’ll meet the first form of Inertia.
it’s like trying to stop a boulder rolling down a hill.
if your willpower doesn’t stop it, it continues.
the boulder’s size and the angle of the hill will differ depending on the activity.
the speed of the boulder is determined by how immersed you were:
when I was a kid, getting pussy on XBOX Live all night, it was so hard to stop.
latinas, swedish girls, red heads, they all wanted me.
i was fully immersed so the size of the Inertia weighing me down was directly proportionate to the size of the cheeks i was clapping.
it’s hard to stop when you’re going hard.
so how the fuck do we overcome this?
we’ll get to that.
it’s surprisingly simple — yet most never see it.
activation energy
when you’ve successfully stopped moving in the wrong direction,
it’s time to start moving in the right one.
a car uses the most amount of fuel getting started.
same with our brain.
the weight of the car determines how much activation energy is needed to start.
emotionally this weight is determined by the size of the task.
set out to run a marathon — and boy your mind will start bitching.
get up to walk to your fridge and it’s crickets.
once you’ve got enough activation energy to get started,
it becomes significantly easier to accelerate.
get started and you’re set.
so why don’t we?
perceived effort
in physics the difference between the effort it takes to get started and to accelerate is only 20-30%.
that might seem like a lot, unless you compare it to our minds.
most psychology estimates are at 50-70%.
this is because our minds work in contrasts.
we compare the easy task to the harder one, making it seem much harder.
perceived effort is the driving force of mental Inertia.
if we think it’s harder, even though it isn’t, Inertia still grows.
a real motherfucker huh?
we stall, not because we’re lazy — but because of momentum.
we either have it in the wrong direction — or we don’t have it at all.
starting feels like climbing Mount Everest.
we’re running downhill — and now we gotta stop, turn around, and go up.
we want to change, but damn it feels impossible.
luckily the fix for this is so easy, you’ll feel stupid for not realizing sooner.
fixing your shit
you can use willpower to stay disciplined — but it’s unreliable.
to beat Inertia, you need a system.
we have to attack it in three ways:
minimize the force needed to get started.
weaken the force in the wrong direction.
shrink the contrast between activities.
and the best part?
you hit all three by using one tool.
Daily Vitamins
take 3 things that matter to you — that you want to build a life around.
every single day, take a tiny step toward them.
what’s the smallest dose you can imagine?
that’s your Vitamin.
one line counts as writing.
one page counts as reading.
one push up counts as exercise.
your goal?
the 66 day mark — the time it takes to form a habit.
you need a finish line — or you’ll never finish.
at first this seems useless — it’s too easy.
that’s the whole point.
small steps cost so little, you can afford to keep moving.
once moving, Inertia works for you — not against you.
Vitamins move you away from distraction, toward your goal —
and through the contrast that made it feel harder than it is.
they’re so small, they cut through the noise and clearly answer the question:
“do i want this — or is this Inertia-brainwashing?”
forget progress for now, it’ll come.
you’re always free to do more, aim higher, go harder.
all I’m saying is decide after you’ve started — not before.