Dear Momentum

Dear Momentum,

I'm a heavily you-based man. 'What do I mean by that?' you may ask. Well, thanks for asking, because that's a great segue to the rest of my letter.

It goes like this:
It takes me a while to get started on things when I'm not fully motivated to do it. It also takes me a while to get said motivation to get to the point where I'm actually trying to start something. But once I do . . . Once I do, you take over, and then it gets tough for me to stop it.

For example, I was going heavy on the blog entries for most of this summer. Then I went away to camp and stopped writing for an entire month. I get back, and suddenly it was really hard to just sit down in front of the computer and type away. No particular reason - because it doesn't really take a whole lot of time or energy to write these things - but the stoppage took away my forward you, and it has taken me a while to get that ball back rolling. In fact, I'm not even sure if the ball IS rolling yet. That's how long it takes.

And this can be a problem for me, at times. Because I'm really good at coming up with great ideas and getting inspired by them. I do it all the time. I come up with these "Master Plans" that have a ridiculously awesome final result. Ideas that people would pay me good money for because they're so brilliant or so great in terms of increasing the productivity and cool-ness of my life. All the time. But then the problem of you pops up. Because, to put any of these plans into action, I actually have to start. And then, once I start, I have to keep it going. And so most of these oh-so-wonderful ideas never come to fruition. And then, a year or two later, I am reminded of said wonderful idea, and I decide to do it "for real" this time.

I bet you can guess the result.

But, knowing this, I am often able to use you to play to my favour. For example, if I can just suck it up and get a routine going for myself, months later I'm patting myself on the back for my vast improvement because I have kept it going. Or how I commit myself to various things through paid money (think "playing in a football league," or "taking a class"), and then I have no choice but to get you going. After that, it's just expected. It also pays to know how you work for me because then I can use it as that added bit of motivation to actually START something (because I know that it only gets easier the more I do it - and get used to doing it).

As long as I start it.

And, once I DO get started, OH BOY OH BOY does the magic happen. A good example is the first few months of this blog (up until camp). My figure-drawing (which has, unfortunately, fallen victim to the lack of you at the moment). When I sit down to do anything creative, you kick in and suddenly I'm just fully immersed in it all, not eating, producing something to be proud of. I'm currently in a state of lyrical/musical you, and it's been doing some great things for me. I started writing this particular letter with very little motivation, and now I've written an acceptable entry. Not great - but acceptable.

And - while we're trying to get the you going - acceptable is perfectly fine (as long as I'm doing it at all).

So thank you, Momentum, for the ups-and-downs. For without great downs, there could never be great ups. Which isn't true at all, but it seems like a good positive spin on the whole deal. I suppose it WOULD be better if you were always a favourable thing in my life, but it would also be better if water instantly hydrated after just one sip and chocolate didn't leave that weird film in my mouth that can only be cured to a fully satisfactory level by a glass of milk.

Yet we keep drinking water and eating chocolate, and so I will keep doing my best to keep you on my side.

I think this might be the beginning of something,
CVT