Doing nothing, of course, isn’t always a good thing.

There is an old story that goes like this:

The man in his 40s has lost his job.  He’s down on his luck.  He goes to church to pray: “Please God, let me win the lottery.”  This goes on day after day.  As the man’s desperation grows, his pleading becomes more and more insistent: “Please God, help me.  I need to win the lottery.”  Late one night, after many weeks of unanswered prayers, the man is down on his knees in the darkened church begging the Almighty:  “God,  I have nowhere else to turn.  Please let me win the lottery.”  And suddenly, a deep voice – obviously frustrated – speaks to the man out of the darkness:  “My son, please go and buy a lottery ticket.”

Newton’s First Law of Physics:  “An object at rest remains at rest… unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”  This law is also known as “the law of inertia.”

Weeks ago, I had to make a hotel reservation in Mendoza, Argentina for an upcoming trip I am leading.  I had the name of the hotel.  The telephone number was on the hotel’s website. But because I couldn’t remember the country code for Argentina, I didn’t call …  for three weeks.  When I finally grabbed hold of my bad self, it literally took me less than five minutes to look up the country code and make the call.

Today, I spotted a document that has been sitting on my desk for the last month.  I needed to review it and make a change.  For some reason, I kept on shuffling it to the bottom of the pile.  It just seemed to require too much effort and I imagined – in my imaginary world –  that it would take me hours to review this (seven page) document and hours longer to draft the change.  When the document worked its way to the surface once again today – buoyed by my success with the Argentine country code – I reviewed the document and made the change in less than the time it has taken me to write this paragraph.

Damn Newton. Inertia is a horrible thing.

First, nothing gets done.  Second, many of us like to engage in a lot of hand wringing while we kvetch about the nothing that’s not getting done.  And third, the nothing that’s not getting done while we kvetch is taking up energetic space that we could otherwise be using for more joyful pursuits.

Action is required.

I absolutely hate when the alarm goes off at 1:00 a.m. on summit morning.  The sleeping bag is warm.  The tent is safe.  Perhaps it would be better just to stay put. Particularly if the route to the top is tough.

Journeying out on the edge is risky business. The problem, of course, is that if you don’t even start out, no journeying ever gets done.  A journey of a thousand miles and all that… .

Even tougher still is starting out  – taking action – when we have no idea at all where the route will lead us.  That can be downright scary.

Perhaps it would be better to have more information, a clearer map, a better day, a GPS, more food, extra water,  a lighter pack, maybe even a guide.  Yes, a guide would be good.  But that will mean we will have to wait for another day.  And certainly it will be safer – and the route clearer – on another day.

The problem is this:  we rarely, if ever,  have all we need to start out on any given day. The challenge is start out anyway.

The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire writes:

Come to the edge, He said.                                                                                                             They said, We are afraid.                                                                                                               Come to the edge, He said.                                                                                                             They came.  He pushed them.                                                                                                       And they flew…

Many times, we just need to push ourselves out the door and start moving forward.

Executive coach Tony Jeary says, “focus on starting, rather than on finishing.” “Even if you don’t think you have everything you need,” he says, “start anyway.”  Go as far as you can see, and then you will be able to see farther.

“Take the first step in faith,” wrote Martin Luther King, Jr. “You don’t have to to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.”

Damn Newton. Fight physics!

Yes, getting out of the bag is required.

 

Many people die with their music still in them.  Why is this so?                                                        Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.                          Before they know it, time has run out.

– Oliver Wendell Holmes