Inertia

Sir Isaac Newton was sure perceptive. He stated that bodies maintain uniform motion (which includes not moving at all) until an external force is applied. That's commonly known as Newton's First Law (let's call it NFL for simplicity's sake), and Galileo simply referred to it first as "inertia". I suffer from NFL all the time. For example, today at work I was thinking how I didn't want to go for a ride, but instead just hang out at home for the evening. But along came an external force, Ironman training, and that applies just enough force (i.e. it scares the crap out of me) to get me going. Of course, as soon as I'm on my bike, I realize there's no where I'd rather be. I just have to overcome that initial inertia.

I see this all the time outside of Ironman training. There's a cliche that goes something like, "If you want something done, ask a busy person." They are in motion, therefore easily maintain that motion. Have you ever tried to get a couch potato off the couch? They are displaying uniform motion (zero), and the external force needed to change that is massive.

Sometimes I just need to find that motivation to overcome inertia. But when I look for it, I find it. Of course, that leads to Newton's Third Law, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Riding my bike (action) leads to more laundry (reaction). Dang that Newton anyway.