MOMENTUM

"It's a lot easier to feel like Sisyphus than a Spanish Galleon when we're searching for momentum."

At the beginning of this year, I decided it was time to ditch New Year's resolutions. As someone who has a bit of a track record for setting unrealistic goals for myself, I figured I might do better sitting out the ritual this year.

I can't help but punish myself a little bit though, so, instead, I said, "I'm gonna give myself a theme for 2025. More succinct. More concise. It's like a resolution but better." So, that's what I did. I decided 2025 was going to be all about consistency… 

It came with mixed results. 

Tahquamenon Falls in October

2025 was kind of a big one. I got married, started grad school, started this blog. I'm still married and still in school. What did Meat Loaf say about fractions? 

Consistency is a funny one. It's something we say we want when our life feels out of control or when the streaky quarterback can't put it all together. But what we really mean is we want things to be consistently good. 

Prison's remarkably consistent. Jackson Arnold was consistently on the ground at Auburn–doesn't make these things desirable. 

We want to consistently wake up feeling in control. We want to consistently go to work, come home and feel good about where our life is headed. 

Around this time last year, I was finally able to start going to physical therapy for nagging knee pain, which somehow turned out to be a torn meniscus despite no catastrophic fall or event. For three or four months I would do these exercises I was assigned and go to my appointments, consistently. 

It wasn't hard to continue doing these exercises; with such expensive co-pays, showing up and doing the work was the only way to get your money's worth. Over time, the knee pain subsided, and I was finally discharged.

Then, I'd sort of gotten to the end of the book–didn't really know what to do next. So, I decided I was cured. Time to start running, lifting weights, and fighting crime. ⅔ ain't bad. 

Somehow, it was easy not to stop this time. I've decided to get in shape and start taking fitness seriously a lot of times; it's something I have a lot of experience starting. What's weird is that this time, I haven't stopped.

I've lifted weights or ran at least a 5K four to six days a week, consistently, for about ten months now. It's something I'm really happy about because of the amount of times I've tried and failed to cultivate this same habit.

What I think is even more valuable, though, is the critical force I've realized momentum plays in building and maintaining habits. Momentum is the wind in our sails–often overlooked, though essential in any voyage. 

It's a lot easier to feel like Sisyphus than a Spanish Galleon when we're searching for momentum, though. 

Tahquamenon Falls in October

I started this blog in the middle of March, hoping it would give me an outlet for releasing my work. So far, it has achieved that purpose. I also hoped I would find the time to share something new every single week. See above, history of setting unrealistic goals for myself. 

Yet, for a short time, I was posting weekly. Then it kinda tapered off. Then, I just… stopped. And I can't even really say why. I remember a few months ago, I wrote a piece about AI, almost posted–didn't. 

Yes, the semester had gotten busy. Other parts of life had taken over. I was embarrassed, though. It felt like taking a hiatus was me failing. Such a silly thought.

Realizing the importance of momentum also let me give myself a lot more grace in terms of how I felt about wanting to be more consistent. When you adopt this mindset, it makes you realize we're a lot less in control. So much of our habits are dictated by the extraordinary force of how and what you did yesterday, and the day before that, and the one before that, and so on. 

It was easy for me to continue working out because for so long, I would go to the gym just to do these simple rehab workouts–that when it was time to start running and lifting real weights, the habit of getting my ass to the gym had already been established. 

Realizing the momentum of yesterday's choice to go to the gym is what put me there today is a lot more comforting and humbling than thinking I had to break something within myself before I'd be able to do something consistently. 

Now, thinking about other habits I want to build or maintain feel a lot more like a hill than an Everest. All we need is a bit of momentum on our side, then, it's easy. I'm hoping to turn this meandering post into some wind for my sails to give me some more direction to continue posting consistently on this silly, little blog. 

More to come,

James