Many job applications never get filed by qualified individuals who think about applying but never get around to doing so. Many books don’t get written but remain great ideas in their would-be authors minds. Many potential great relationships never develop because some individuals become too timid to pursue them.
Inertia is a great leveler. It keeps people from rising beyond their circumstances when they could be challenging themselves and bettering themselves. It allows people to experience a comfort level with staying stuck.
But it’s not really that comfortable. Once somebody has a great idea for moving forward, the idea doesn’t go away just because it isn’t acted upon. The would-be dieter remains overweight. The potential job applicant remains in an unsatisfying position while wondering what might have been. The attractive man or woman continues to be attractive but only as a fantasy rather than a date.
I have noticed that inertia unfairly picks upon the competent. Because so many of us can continue to function adequately without testing our limits, we tend to settle for mediocre. For example, one can remain in a tolerable but unsatisfying job even if s/he doesn’t get around to applying for another, and the world won’t stop revolving if a book or song that you think about writing never comes to fruition.
Overcoming inertia requires a commitment to being the best person you can be by challenging and testing your limits – even though inertia permits us to maintain a level of comfort that is tolerable even though it is unsatisfying.
Once you develop a lifestyle that is devoted to overcoming inertia, the following guidelines and behaviors come into play:
1. Accept the fact that you have to give up a bit of discomfort in order to change.
2. Visualize the success that can come from the risk you are taking.
3. Don’t do unproductive over-analyzing that can be paralyzing.
4. ACT!!!
5. Enjoy the process and accept the consequences.
Now pick out something that you have been avoiding that can lead to greater success. Feel free to start small – trying something that you’ve been thinking about that is relatively safe without extreme consequences even if you fall short.
Once you have done it, I suspect that you will be happier with yourself because you acted – regardless of the outcome. Because your actions now become part of your history, I suspect that you will find it much easier to overcome inertia the next time.