My Paper Heart

I've had this post sitting around as a draft for months now, because I've never really been sure what to make of this song. I almost wrote a New Year's post with it, but that just didn't pan out, and we're now well on our way in to the new year (we're already more than 1% of the way done with this year!)
So, basically, I decided to write about this line from My Paper Heart:

This wait for destiny won't do.

I know it isn't the most profound of lines, but it's one of those things that people have said in a ton of different ways:

• Grab life by the horns
• A rolling stone gathers no moss
• He who hesitates is lost
• Shoot first, ask questions later
• Strike while the iron is hot
• Don't eat yellow snow.

OK, that last one had nothing to do with the rest of them, I just wanted to see if you were paying attention. In all seriousness though, it seems like motivation to act is one of the most common themes for old adages. As I thought about that, I realized that there must be some very solid truth behind that. I feel like there has got to be some reason why there are so many motivational speakers out there, and I can't tell you how many times I have left a motivational seminar thinking "I'm on fire! I can so totally do this!" 

I've got this idea that I've been working on for a while, and I really like how broadly it seems to work so far. It's based in science (being the nerd that I am), so I'm sorry if it's too boring. If you do make it through, tell me what you think:

1

Newton's first law can be boiled down to "An object in motion tends to stay in motion." It's the law of inertia. This is how my physics classes always started- throwing a baseball in space, a cart traveling on a friction-less track, etc. As simple as it can get, if something is sitting still, it's going to stay still, if it's moving, it is going to keep moving. 

I wish that life were that simple. Physics calculations would be so easy if that were the way things were. Similarly, if I could bottle that "I'm on fire!" attitude and keep that kind of motivation constant, I'd like to think that I could really be wildly successful. 

2

Unfortunately, newton's got another law. His second law relates the force an object experiences to the acceleration it will undergo by how heavy it is. Boiled down: the harder you push on something, the faster it's going to go. This, I feel, is half of the justification for the motivational speaking industry: we can be big, fat, lazy slobs. For some people, the adages up top would be enough to keep them going. They want to be moving anyway, and so the little pushes of simple sayings get them moving. For another group of people, anything short of a well-planned and passionately emotional speech won't be able to nudge us to act. 

3

If you noticed, I mentioned that 2 is half the justification for motivational speakers. There is one more portion to the laws of Newton that every physics student gets to learn: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This, I feel, is the other half. This is what really complicates the calculations. When there is friction slowing your cart down, when air resistance alters the path your baseball was going to take, when you have a great idea but start to see all of the obstacles facing you; that's what makes things so complicated. Every time that friction slows you down, you have to battle through, and I've found that it's often a motivational "push" that gets me past that and helps me keep moving. 

Everyone has their own personal way of motivating themselves. For some people, it's sayings written on mirrors. For others, it's surrounding themselves with positive people. Still others like to read inspiring stories. I know religion is a big part of what constitutes my motivation. Whatever it is, I feel like there is an innate need as part of the human condition that drives us to do, to become, to improve. We all want to make our own difference in the world, and waiting for destiny just won't do.