Introduction

Have you noticed that it’s hard to change your morning route to work? I remember one time it took me more than a week to remember to drive a different route to work due to construction, even when I had to turn around every time! To take it further, have you noticed that it’s hard to change your way of doing things? Worse yet, it’s even harder to change your way of thinking! That is the Law of Inertia at work. Unfortunately sometimes the Law of Inertia can work against us, make us lazy and complacent, and hinder us from growth. Let me explain why and offer some ideas on how to overcome it.

Law of Inertia Defined

First, let’s see how physics defines it:

It is also known as Newton’s First Law of Motion. It states that

an object will remain at rest or remain in motion, unless it is acted upon by another force. Inertia comes from mass. Objects with more mass have more inertia.

Actually, if you think about its definition for a minute, it’s not that hard to see how it translates into life, is it?

Think about your life for a minute. How many times have you done things a certain way just because it’s always been done that way, until one day you are shown a different way to do it, or a different way to think about it. That’s the moment you realize that you have been riding on top of inertia in that area of your life, either for good or bad.

Either you’ve been stuck in a rut for a while, you haven’t grown in that area, or you’ve been building up a good habit or lifestyle and you are reaping the benefits of it. That’s how we know that the Law of Inertia is not just a physical law, but more of a spiritual law that governs our lives on a daily basis.

So in this blog post, let’s talk about how the Law of Inertia might be working against you, and how you can overcome it and make it work for you.

How the Law of Inertia Might Be Working Against You

I submit to you that the Law of Inertia is at work in all areas of life, and sometimes it might be working against you. Do any of these examples from my own life ring a bell with you?

Health and Fitness

Sitting on a couch and watching movies makes me want to sit there more. Sometimes it takes a real intentional effort to get off the couch. Yeah…you know what I’m talking about. We’ve all been there.

Sitting at my desk at work makes me want to sit at my desk longer. Sometimes it’s a challenge to make myself get up and stand, walk around a little. Staring at the computer screen for a long time is neither good for health or productivity. Later I’ll talk about some practical tips on how to overcome this particular issue, since it’s so prevalent.

Ok, this next one is my personal “favorite”: being stuck on my phone! I love my iPhone. I do so much on it: reading news, articles, books, listening to music, watching videos, do my banking, and of course, social networking. Sometimes I feel like there’s a magnetic force between my eyes and the screen. It’s so hard to pry myself away from it. It’s probably borderline addiction. I’ve wasted countless hours on social media and mindless videos.

But these habits, or negative inertia, are so bad for your health. In recent years, since the introduction of online video streaming, smartphones, etc, I’ve had to see the chiropractor more often due to all these bad habits.

Personal Development

I’ve also realized that the Law of Inertia can work against me in my personal and professional development if I’m not careful. Let me explain.

Having implemented software certain way for a long time makes me want to implement it the same way next time, but it may not be the best way next time due to technological advances and change in circumstances. In a real world project, there’s always time, money and resource constraints, so the temptation is always there to just keep doing things the same way as before. Sometimes it is totally fine and appropriate, but other times it hinders me from learning new things and making improvements. If I allow that to go on for a long time, that’s when my skillset can become outdated and irrelevant, which can result in inferior quality of work, and even losing my job.

The Law of Inertia not only affects my work habits, but also my mindset and belief system, which can be way more impactful.

Having settled in the mindset of a software engineer makes me want to stay that way, but is that what defines me and gives me fulfillment as a career? I’ve often struggled with this. Having a career as a software engineer makes me a very technical and analytical person, by default. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that it’s very easy to always think of myself that way, and limit myself to a box of pre-conceived notions and stereotypes associated with nerds and techies.

It’s very tempting to think that I am not a people-person, or I’m not good at communications, or I don’t understand the business side of things, or I am not an artistic person, and so on. I find it very challenging to break free from that mold. It takes a lot of intentional effort to believe that I am not defined by my job title. However, once I change that mindset about myself, I believe new doors of opportunity will open for me that I have never thought of.

Can you think of some examples from your own life?

The Law of Inertia Can Also Work Against an Organization

If you take it even further, you will realize that the Law of Inertia not only can work against an individual, but also an organization. Some quick examples that come to mind are: The Blackberry phone maker, RIM, who once dominated the mobile phone market for a decade, was made irrelevant in a few years by the introduction of iPhone, and now they are an afterthought; Blockbuster video rental stores were made obsolete by online video streaming services such as Netflix; Hastings, a local beloved book and entertainment store, is beat out by online giant Amazon.

These are just some very obvious examples of organizations who were set in their old ways, riding on the Inertia of past success, but didn’t see the need to change, or didn’t change fast enough. The results can be devastating.

Ok, now that I’ve shown you some not-so-encouraging examples of how the Law of Inertia might be working against you, let’s talk about how we can overcome it and even make it work for you.

But first, we need to realize something.

The Law of Inertia Itself Is Not Good or Bad. It’s Neutral!

If you’ve read so far, I’ve probably given the Law of Inertia a bad rap. But please understand: like any other law, the Law of Inertia is neutral.

If it’s causing negative effects in your life, such as making you too comfortable or complacent, then it’s bad. But if you are moving in a good direction, then the Law of Inertia actually becomes the Law of Momentum, which actually propels you to move even faster and further, and generates a lot of excitement. That’s how you want the law of inertia to work for you. So, how do we do that?

How To Overcome The Negative Effects Of the Law of Inertia And Make It Work For You

Be Smart. Be Aware

We need to be on the lookout and watch for it. If you get a little too comfortable for too long, then maybe it’s an indication the law of inertia is working against you.

Regularly “Disrupt” Your Own Life

Why? You might ask. That sounds so…counterintuitive, and you are right. Please understand: I am not saying that you need to wreak havoc in your own life. All I’m saying is that if you get a little too comfortable with certain areas of life, then you might consider changing it up a bit.

Remember: Inertia comes from mass. More mass means more inertia. When applied to life, it means the longer you are settled in certain way or comfort zone, the harder it is to change. So, the sooner or more frequently you make changes, the easier it is to change.

For example,

Earlier I talked about sitting at your desk and staring at the computer screen for a long time is not a good habit. Here are some things I do to disrupt that. First, I got a standing desk that’s permanently fixed at standing height. I have a chair I can sit on to work, but it’s not very comfortable, on purpose. So that makes me want to stand up more often. I also drink hot tea throughout the day, which is good for my health, but it also makes me want to use the bathroom more often, so that forces me to step away from my desk and take a quick break on a regular basis. So this system works really well for me. It has helped me maintain and even improve my health, and allows me to have more energy throughout the day to be productive.

Other things to consider to disrupt your life:

1. try different exercise routines to disrupt your physical growth and stay fit
2. read different kinds of books/blogs/articles to disrupt your thinking
3. meet different people to disrupt your relationship building and expand your circle of influence
4. go to seminars/conferences/workshops to disrupt your career development
5. engage deeply in conversation with people to disrupt your communication and thought process
6. more extreme: move to a different city or country to disrupt your way of life completely. Now that will change things for sure!!! 🙂

Humble Attitude

Attitude is everything to overcome the negative effects of inertia: stay humble, always keep learning and stretching yourself. There’s always a better way to do things, and we can always learn something from someone else.

Just Do Something

Finally, if you feel like you are stuck in a rut, and really don’t know what to do, just do something! Remember, You don’t know what you don’t know, so sometimes you just need to do something different.

Conclusion

The takeaway is this: the Law of inertia working against you is a very, very subtle thing. If you want to grow in life, beware of it constantly! Don’t stay in the comfort zone. Don’t coast! Get up and do something different! Convert that inertia to momentum in your life!