Overcoming the law of inertia

I had some difficult stuff to do yesterday – emails and telephone calls that I was by no means sure would have the effect I wanted. So I pondered, puzzled and rearranged the words in my head and on the page. A conversation I had had the previous day came to mind and almost by accident I found Newton’s First Law of Motion.

Newton's 1st Law states that a body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest.

I’m not sure Newton had in mind a body sitting at a computer, but nonetheless the lesson sunk home.

This body could put off making the phone call or sending the email and remain at rest. The certain outcome would be that whilst I would not get a rejection, neither would I get the outcome I wanted.

Alternatively, the body could send the email and make the phone call, and set things in motion. If Newton was right, they would stay in motion. I had the evidence I needed, and emails were sent, phone calls were made and meetings duly set up.

Of course, the mere mention of this being the first law implies there are others, and Newton’s 3rd Law is also useful:

Newton's 3rd Law states that every action has an equal but opposite reaction.

Well at least one of my emails did have an opposite reaction – which was not a great surprise to me – even though it was a disappointment. A reaction is better than a body at rest and at least the motion can continue.

So whilst this isn’t the type of evidence I had in mind when I set my 30 day data-centric challenge, it has at least provided additional insight to my decision making process.