Yet Another Blog on Momentum

We always hear the sentiment: beginning is the hardest part; once you have momentum in your actions it becomes easier to make positive choices. And the other day I had a moment in my training where this idea was concretely demonstrated, and the clarity of it made me want to document it to refer back to in the future.

For the last little while I have been focusing on rebuilding consistency in my training/routine. It has been going well and for a while I was at a point where thinking about skipping a day didn't ever register as a possible choice. But one night I was so tired that that little voice of mediocrity in my head started whispering you could just skip today and do it tomorrow instead, it's your rest day anyway so just switch them and take a break tonight but because I had been doing things right on track up until that point I had almost 3 weeks worth of momentum behind my choice, I miss this one day, that whole streak disappears, all those other days where I did choose to practice could be wiped out by this decision, so I decided to just do it. And the ease with which I was able to make that choice is what I want to focus on.

Momentum concretely makes things easier because all I have to think about is just one more. And I think this ease comes from the fact that you are really only focusing on the present moment. I can envision myself continuing to do it in the future (because saying "I'll do it tomorrow" is incredibly easy since it requires no current action, only wishful thinking) so all I need to worry about is the present: a single day, a single choice, a single moment. Compared to when I have no momentum, wishing I could start in the past, comparing myself to where I "should" be, weighed down by all the "todays" I missed. Momentum allows me to measure my pace, and starting from scratch forces me to reconcile with the distance traveled.

(side note, this is the second week in a row where something came up suddenly on Monday, and I think because I don't normally attend class on Monday I am more inclined to make those plans, so I think from now on I'm going to change my deadline to Tuesday night instead)



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