Overcoming Inertia

I look forward to winter at Missed Skeet Farm. It takes a lot of work to keep things going, so much that you forget about trying to make progress and concentrate only on survival. That sounds more dramatic than it really is. You can be quite comfortable and operate at about thirty percent of your work capacity. If pressed, I could accomplish a lot during the winter, but the truth is I enjoy the down time.

Up until Christmas, it is a scramble to get ready for whatever mother nature can throw at you and, of course, getting Christmas presents made. December 25 is the deadline and you do whatever it takes to get the presents complete. Now that Christmas is over, Kris and I only have to take care of ourselves. There is no pressing, urgent reason to do much. It feels sooo good! I really enjoy sitting by the fire and reading or just thinking.

There is a danger in this. Once you stop working hard and let discipline go in favor of a well deserved rest, it is hard to make yourself start back up. Mole hills of work seem like mountains while you sit and think about them. The law of inertia applies to all bodies, including mine. I have been completely overwhelmed by a few dirty dishes when I am at my lowest kinetic energy setting.
Thinking about those dishes will tire me enough to take a nap.

Men have a natural instinct to do as little as possible anyway. This is learned during adolesence when you are trying desperately to get out of your house and go hang with your friends. You are trying to achieve the absolute least amount of work you can to hasten your escape. Your mother is cooking, cleaning, doing your laundry and looking for any sign that you might actually do something helpful before you vaporize and disappear for the day.

Men bring the skills learned in adolesence to maturity allowing them to sit and watch TV in the midst of a flurry of cooking and cleaning. So practised is this skill that they have no awareness of any activity going on around them at all.

The laws of inertia make it hard to reverse this trend toward lethargy. The further things sink, the greater the pain of powering up and trying to becoming useful again. It is best,therefore, not to let things go too far.

Predictably, it is easier to see when someone else is slipping over the edge and flirting with laziness than seeing it in yourself. So a good partner will often try to help you avoid sinking lower. "You going to sit there all day?" I'll ask Kris, trying to be helpful. That snaps her right out of her lethargy! If you are going to try this at home, make sure you have a clear path to the door and few steps on the person your helping.

Left on my own, I will eventually come out of this state. Watching Kris cook, do dishes, bring wood in and lug water to the horses, I will feel the urge to help and point out that she's letting the laundry pile up and it would be nice to have the floor vaccumed cause my socks have been getting dirty when I get up from my nap and shuffle to the rocker. The foot race that follows sure catapults my energy level right up near overload and makes laziness just a fond memory. Working your way out of the dog house is a pretty good way to shake off winters blahs and accomplish way more than you thought possible.