There’s No Such Thing As Tomorrow

The Never Ending Fight Against Inertia/Resistance

A topic I keep coming back to is momentum. Without it, life can feel like trudging through quicksand. With it, you can propel yourself to new heights. It’s hard to maintain and even harder to create when you’re stuck. Newton’s First Law of Motion—the Principle of Inertia—captures this perfectly: “Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force.”

Think about inertia in action: when a car stops suddenly, passengers lurch forward because their bodies want to keep moving. It’s the same with life.

In his book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield introduces the idea of Resistance—a universal force that works against human creativity and growth. Resistance is like inertia’s twin: it thrives on keeping things as they are. It uses fear, anxiety, distraction, or even rationalization to hold you back.

The solution? Don’t let Resistance win. Don’t let inertia hold you captive. If there’s something you need to do, don’t wait for tomorrow—do it today. Better yet, do it right now.

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Start Small, Build Momentum

You don’t need heroic bursts of effort to create momentum. Small actions are powerful. If you’ve been wanting to start meditating, commit to two minutes. Two minutes can easily grow into five, and then ten.

Find the low-hanging fruit. For me, simply getting out of bed when the alarm goes off helps. It’s tempting to stay under the covers, but why waste willpower fighting it? You’re going to get up eventually—why not just do it?

Another habit I swear by is making my bed. I’ve done it every morning for years. It’s a tiny act, but it creates a small ripple of accomplishment that carries into the day.

In social situations, I’ve learned to start talking right away. It might feel unnatural at first, but it puts me in a better mood and loosens me up. If I withdraw into myself, it’s much harder to re-engage.

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Momentum in Real Life

I’ll admit: I haven’t been great at practicing what I preach lately. Over the past couple of years, my wife and I worked hard to improve our old house with its endless list of problems. We accomplished a lot and even welcomed two daughters into the world. But since then, my energy has been split between raising kids and starting this newsletter. Some of my good habits and things I need to get done have fallen by the wayside.

One of my struggles is pacing myself. I’ve always tried to tackle challenges in heroic bursts, but those bursts often leave me burned out and back at square one. Progress doesn’t come from dramatic efforts—it comes from chipping away, little by little.

When I let things slide, bad habits creep in. My house gets cluttered, and I start making bad decisions. And bad decisions can be addictive. They’re easier, more fun, and a convenient escape from actually applying yourself. But as Jerzy Gregorek says: “Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”

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The Power of One Good Decision

“I’ll do it tomorrow” is a lie I tell myself far too often. The truth? Tomorrow rarely comes. But when I drop what I’m doing and tackle something now, I feel good. That one action leads to another, creating momentum where there was none.

Never underestimate the power of a single good decision. It can spark a chain reaction of better choices. It’s the antidote to Resistance and inertia. Sometimes you just need to start—no matter how small.

What’s your Resistance? What’s one thing you can do right now to beat it?