Several weeks back, my wife and I looked out our kitchen window, marveling and laughing as a visitor to our neighbor’s house tried to get his car out of the snow after he’d driven it slightly down an incline. Back and forth he spun his tires. Spinning, spinning.
Someone else brought a pickup truck and they attached chains to the front bumper of the snowbound vehicle and revved the engine so it swerved side to side feebly trying to yank the stuck car. This went on for well over half an hour.
As we watched, I expounded on how brute force doesn’t work. It’s way more important to use momentum to your advantage. Speed isn’t the solution. Momentum is.
Several years back, our two younger offspring, then in college, hosted a party at our house over the winter months. As the visitors debarked at the end of the weekend, one was stuck in a few inches of snow.
I came outside after watching them flooring the gas and getting nowhere. They put cardboard and kitty litter under the tires to no avail as the tires slid at top speed over both materials, digger deeper and deeper.
Bemused, I watched. Frustrated the driver finally got out after many minutes of using acceleration as the solution.
I asked him for the keys, hopped in, and said, “Watch.” I gently rocked forward, then quickly rocked back softly, then gently went in forward gear again, and YOW, the car slid right out. I pulled it onto our driveway, left it running and gave the driver the keys.
“How the heck did you do that?,” he asked. “Momentum,” I responded.
When you look at a nail, you think of a hammer. When you’re stuck in the snow, you think getting the wheels going as fast as possible is the solution. But, it’s not. How you apply momentum is though.
You see this principle actively in other parts of your life. For example, in basketball, team momentum is a huge component in victories. A player gets hot shooting and you ride their momentum. The ball starts to go in the hoop and you start taking faster and deeper shots because momentum is carrying your team at that point.
When you are working on a project and the juices flow, that’s not time to take a break. Instead, ride your creative impulses and stay on task. That’s when good things happen and you often put out your best work. Momentum builds.
When writing this column, I ride momentum. An event typically gets me thinking of a story line, and I jot down a headline, some notes and a potential ending. There’s quick momentum there.
I let those notes percolate for a week or more. Then, at the right time, I get to the keyboard and hammer away, the momentum quickly carrying me through some points, a story or two and an ending that ties things up. Without that mental momentum, I’d sit on my butt staring at the computer screen.
Momentum isn’t always evident. You have to backtrack sometimes to uncover the type of momentum you need.
Used wisely, momentum will keep you ahead of the ball.
Someone else brought a pickup truck and they attached chains to the front bumper of the snowbound vehicle and revved the engine so it swerved side to side feebly trying to yank the stuck car. This went on for well over half an hour.
As we watched, I expounded on how brute force doesn’t work. It’s way more important to use momentum to your advantage. Speed isn’t the solution. Momentum is.
Several years back, our two younger offspring, then in college, hosted a party at our house over the winter months. As the visitors debarked at the end of the weekend, one was stuck in a few inches of snow.
I came outside after watching them flooring the gas and getting nowhere. They put cardboard and kitty litter under the tires to no avail as the tires slid at top speed over both materials, digger deeper and deeper.
Bemused, I watched. Frustrated the driver finally got out after many minutes of using acceleration as the solution.
I asked him for the keys, hopped in, and said, “Watch.” I gently rocked forward, then quickly rocked back softly, then gently went in forward gear again, and YOW, the car slid right out. I pulled it onto our driveway, left it running and gave the driver the keys.
“How the heck did you do that?,” he asked. “Momentum,” I responded.
When you look at a nail, you think of a hammer. When you’re stuck in the snow, you think getting the wheels going as fast as possible is the solution. But, it’s not. How you apply momentum is though.
You see this principle actively in other parts of your life. For example, in basketball, team momentum is a huge component in victories. A player gets hot shooting and you ride their momentum. The ball starts to go in the hoop and you start taking faster and deeper shots because momentum is carrying your team at that point.
When you are working on a project and the juices flow, that’s not time to take a break. Instead, ride your creative impulses and stay on task. That’s when good things happen and you often put out your best work. Momentum builds.
When writing this column, I ride momentum. An event typically gets me thinking of a story line, and I jot down a headline, some notes and a potential ending. There’s quick momentum there.
I let those notes percolate for a week or more. Then, at the right time, I get to the keyboard and hammer away, the momentum quickly carrying me through some points, a story or two and an ending that ties things up. Without that mental momentum, I’d sit on my butt staring at the computer screen.
Momentum isn’t always evident. You have to backtrack sometimes to uncover the type of momentum you need.
Used wisely, momentum will keep you ahead of the ball.