Just like that it's January 2nd, 2009. It's not that I expected some kind of hazy aura of change to sweep over my town; Yet, the the current state of my environment is slightly unfulfilling. Although my calendar changed, and I will inevitably have to strike through "2008" (as I am a creature of habit) on documents for 4 months, nothing has really changed.
I suppose this is one reason that new year's resolutions are so hard to stick with. Something prevented you from making those changes in 2008. You knew they were worthy of pursuit, yet fell into a routine that shunned complete efficiency in productivity. Whatever it was about you, or whatever it was about your life, that caused you to sink into a rut... well, it's still there in 2009. Of course when I say "you", I mean "I".
Nearly 14 years removed from my last physics course, I think the word I am looking for is inertia. I bet Isaac Newton was really good at following through with his new year's resolutions. After all, he was the first to discover the law of inertia, which is apparently what keeps our resolutions from fabricating. The law of inertia pretty much says that things don't change unless acted on by an outside force.
"When a force acts upon an object to cause a displacement of the object, it is said that work was done upon the object"
And therein lies the problem: work. Nothing will change without an outside force acting on it. Producing that outside force requires work to be done. Bummer.
Physics and experience tell us that it takes energy to do work. So all we need is additional, or better, ways of creating energy and our new years' goals and resolutions will be a piece of cake.
So what's my point? I really didn't have one when I started writing this post - but if anything, I guess my point is that just because the year changed from 2008 to 2009it doesn't make it any easier to do the things you know you want to do (or should be doing). Those things are still going to require the same amount of energy and effort to accomplish that they would have a couple of months ago. The only real thing that we have going for us now is motivation. And motivation can be a pretty good source of energy.
I suppose this is one reason that new year's resolutions are so hard to stick with. Something prevented you from making those changes in 2008. You knew they were worthy of pursuit, yet fell into a routine that shunned complete efficiency in productivity. Whatever it was about you, or whatever it was about your life, that caused you to sink into a rut... well, it's still there in 2009. Of course when I say "you", I mean "I".
Nearly 14 years removed from my last physics course, I think the word I am looking for is inertia. I bet Isaac Newton was really good at following through with his new year's resolutions. After all, he was the first to discover the law of inertia, which is apparently what keeps our resolutions from fabricating. The law of inertia pretty much says that things don't change unless acted on by an outside force.
"When a force acts upon an object to cause a displacement of the object, it is said that work was done upon the object"
And therein lies the problem: work. Nothing will change without an outside force acting on it. Producing that outside force requires work to be done. Bummer.
Physics and experience tell us that it takes energy to do work. So all we need is additional, or better, ways of creating energy and our new years' goals and resolutions will be a piece of cake.
So what's my point? I really didn't have one when I started writing this post - but if anything, I guess my point is that just because the year changed from 2008 to 2009it doesn't make it any easier to do the things you know you want to do (or should be doing). Those things are still going to require the same amount of energy and effort to accomplish that they would have a couple of months ago. The only real thing that we have going for us now is motivation. And motivation can be a pretty good source of energy.
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