DEFYING THE LAWS OF INERTIA

President's Message By
Frank L. VanderSloot
President & CEO

June 2006

Inertia is a very interesting and powerful concept. According to Webster’s Dictionary, inertia is “the tendency of a body to remain at rest or stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force.” This means something that is already moving will tend to keep moving until something stops it or slows it down. And if something is standing still, it will continue to stand still until something else moves it. This law holds true for all inert objects.

As human beings, we deal with a type of inertia within ourselves. We develop habits, attitudes, personalities and behaviors that tend to keep us doing what we have been doing. We may not like what we are doing or what is happening in our lives, but rather than change, we stay in the old ruts we have created for ourselves. Most people tend to blame their problems on outside forces like the weather, the economy, their bosses, or perhaps their spouses or parents. The result is that the problems continue to exist and nothing changes to send them down a road of happiness or success.

There is a very real tendency in all of us to keep doing what we’ve been doing, and therefore we keep getting what we’ve been getting. That’s wonderful if we are enjoying what is happening in our lives—but it is tragic if we are not happy with what we’ve been getting from life.

So what can we do? The concept of inertia would teach us that we will keep doing what we are doing until we are acted upon by some outside force. That would be the case if we were inert objects.

The truth is, of course, that we are not inert objects. An inert object is something that cannot act on its own accord. And although it is true that we will tend not to change until something happens, the change that happens will never be because of being acted upon by some external force—the change that must happen must happen inside us. And change within ourselves will always come about because we choose to take action rather than be acted upon.

Even the concept that someone else can motivate us is a great fallacy. We must motivate ourselves! Only when we realize that we must take charge of our own lives—and stop waiting for something to happen to us—will we be able to make the changes in our lives to bring us the joy and satisfaction of accomplishment and achievement.

Change and personal growth are always challenging and often difficult and scary. But they can also be very rewarding! Change is often necessary in order to reach our goals and make our dreams come true. We do not have to wait until New Year’s Day to make changes within ourselves.

It is my hope that all of us will take time out to evaluate who we are on the inside and how our lives are going. We really can’t change anyone else, but we can change ourselves!

If we don’t like what we are doing, or if we recognize areas where we need to improve, we can make the commitment to ourselves or even to our loved ones that we will change. It will be difficult, and we may never be perfect at it. But if we try, we will get better at it. And that will be a change!

Sincerely,

Frank

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