How Does Newton’s First Law of Motion Relate to Personal Finances?

blog-image-couch-potatoNewton’s First Law of Motion essentially says this:  An object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless some outside force is applied.  For example

  • If you don’t exercise, you won’t lose weight or gain muscle.
  • If you don’t ask someone out, you won’t go on a date
  • If you don’t talk with your spouse, you won’t have a relationship (whether or not you stay together)
  • If you don’t show up for work, you won’t get paid

Not all of these are perfect comparisons, but hopefully they illustrate the point.  If you want to save more money, get out of debt, build wealth and give more, you’ve got to get in motion.

Get intense.

Get angry.

Debt, laziness, and apathy are stealing your hard earned resources from you and your family. (Click to Tweet!)

“That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more…”  Popeye

This Will Take Olympic Style Intensity

Couch potatoes need not apply here.  We need an Olympic sized work ethic to make this work!  It takes:

  • intense focus
  • drive
  • clear objectives
  • a finite timeline
  • practice, practice, practice (or work, work, work)
  • time
  • someone to keep you fired up (a trainer or coach)

Don’t get me wrong, you need to have down time for rest and restoration, but you can forgo the week-long vacation in the Bahamas until after you have reached your goal.

Keep the Pace Steady and Your Eye on the Prize

In the well known fable of The Tortoise and the Hare, the tortoise wins the race because he keeps moving steadily in the direction of the finish line. The hare loses because, even though faster than the tortoise, he decides to take a nap instead of continuing toward the finish line because he assumes the tortoise is too slow to ever win.

The couch potato loses the race. (Click to Tweet)

The Wise Words of King Solomon

My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
    if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
you have been trapped by what you said,
    ensnared by the words of your mouth.
So do this, my son, to free yourself,
    since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands:
Go—to the point of exhaustion
    and give your neighbor no rest!
Allow no sleep to your eyes,
    no slumber to your eyelids.
Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
    like a bird from the snare of the fowler.  Proverbs 6:1-5 (NIV, BibleGateway.com)

 

[Cue theme from the film Rocky….]