momentum

I never took a physics class, and I have only a basic understanding of some of the laws that govern our world—at least the natural ones—but I’ve been interested lately in the concept of momentum.

Momentum is “the product of the mass of an object and its velocity.” (Thanks, nerd on Google.) It’s how fast something moves. I always picture momentum as what happens when the performer keeps all the plates spinning atop sticks on a stage. As long as the performer puts in a little effort to keep them rotating, they maintain the status of spinning. Perhaps they lose momentum, but it doesn’t take much to get them going once they’ve begun.

I also understand momentum as not necessarily spinning, but moving faster in one direction, like a rock falling down a cliff. I guess it increases momentum as it gets going, until it hits something. (?) Some physicist can correct me on that, it’s not important to my point. Maybe just think of a runner increasing speed.

I’m not so much interested in gathering or gaining momentum on a scientific level or theoretical level, but I’m fascinated by it as it relates to completing anything in my life, whether it’s writing my next book or moving toward something I really want. Getting closer to whatever it is I want.

So much of life seems to be spent on a plateau. I stay in the same line of work. Live in the same place, which more or less seems to have the same level of neatness. I generally weigh the same, have the same amount of money, and so on. Often, I feel stasis—that things stay about the same.

But I have all these dreams. I’ve always had all these dreams. And most of the dreams involve change, and change for the better:

Fixing up the house.

Getting out of debt.

Losing weight.

Finishing a book.

And so on.

These are basic-level dreams. Ones that are easy to picture, often because I’ve done them before in a different way.

Some of my dreams are bigger though, so big I barely let myself think about them or say them out loud. (Like, what if one of my books became a movie?) These are the scarier dreams, and the ones I can’t be rational about. They’re ones that are subject to my superstitions, like if I talk about it, then what? I can’t think about the odds or all the reasons why they can’t happen. I can only think about ways they could.

But here’s the thing: I have no idea how to get momentum going on my big dreams.

Stated differently, if I have something I want so badly, and I have no idea how it’s going to come about, how do I do anything about it? It’s not like saving money where I, you know, put money aside. Do I just wait for the Universe to come deliver my movie to me? How else does it happen?

So, here’s what I started thinking. For things like decorating my house or saving money or losing weight, as I’ve said and is obvious, I know what to do to accomplish those goals/dreams. I just have to take the steps in the right direction and watch for taking steps backwards. Thus, I can gain momentum by simply keeping moving in the direction I want to go

But for the dreams that I have no idea about? How do I get the wheels turning on those?

Well, I came up with an idea.

While (for example) I don’t know all the steps to get a book made into a movie, I do know how to do one thing: brainstorm a concept for a movie. I mean, before you make a movie, you need a story, right?

The first step, thus, to get momentum toward my goal of having a movie made of my story is to come up with a great concept.

Well, at first blush, that sounds as daunting as getting a movie made, no? I mean, what, do I just magically have a great concept?

So, I broke it down again.

How do I come up with a great concept?

I continually brainstorm.

In accordance with that, I’ve started a small habit: to write down daily an idea.

One idea.

I don’t judge the idea. I just write it down.

Many people have heard of Jerry Seinfeld’s supposed method of writing jokes: he had to write one every day. It didn’t matter how good it was. It just mattered that he showed up every day and wrote a joke. That he x-ed off the day on the calendar as one on which he wrote a joke. And then his job became to not break the streak. To keep those x marks going on his calendar.

He didn’t judge himself as to how good the jokes were. He just showed up every day and wrote a joke.

Okay, I can do that. I can write down a concept every day.

And as applied to anything, I can break down my dream into something manageable that I can do daily.

I’ve only been writing down story concepts for a short while, and it’s amazing how much better I feel. How much more in control of my dreams I’m feeling. I have this brightness in my brain. I think it’s happiness.

But also, I’m sensing that I’m gaining momentum toward my goal.

And that’s everything.

I repeat, the action I’m taking is so small. The concept (of simply writing down a concept) is so tiny it’s almost insignificant, and it’s easy to ignore. It’s easy to skip a day. It can be one word: “robot” or “Victorian” or two, i.e. “Victorian robot” or literally ANYTHING.

Somehow, though, the very act of taking a tiny step toward my dream by writing down a story concept has made me so happy. I look at my growing list of ideas (for any kind of story, be it a book, series of books, script, whatever), and I feel strong. I feel like I’m gaining momentum. I feel like I’m moving closer to my dream than away from it. I’m not in stasis anymore.

Then I think about that old rule: objects in motion tend to stay in motion.

I can’t wait to see what concepts come.

So, if you have some secret dream, one that you have no idea how it’s going to come about, think of a tiny step you can do every day to move you toward it.

I bet it will make you happy. I hope it will move you toward your dream.

I hope I’m moving toward mine.