2011: My Year of Momentum

I absolutely love this time of year!  Not just because of all the holiday festivities, but also because we draw near to the end of another year and the promise of a new year arises.  Whether you are diligent in the creation of  New Year's resolutions or just winging it, this is a great time for reflection and planning.  Gretchen Rubin recently challenged her readers to choose one word to set the tone for next year.  I find this to be a compelling idea and have given a lot of thought to what word I choose to focus on during this coming year.

My word for 2011 is going to be... MOMENTUM.

Without getting into a complex physics lesson I surely don't understand, here's a simple explanation of momentum.  Momentum is the product of the mass m and the velocity v of an object.  It is the power that an object has... the amount of force one object can have on another.

Momentum is more challenging to deal with than energy because as a vector, it has both magnitude AND direction.  Forces in one direction can affect momentum in another direction.  A body in motion tends to stay in motion.  A body at rest tends to stay at rest.

The Law of Momentum Conservation states

For a collision occurring between object 1 and object 2 in an isolated system, the total momentum of the two objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects after the collision.  That  is, the momentum lost by object 1 is equal to the momentum gained by object 2.

What important truths lie in this mini-physics lesson?  Well....

1. Momentum changes abruptly when you hit a "brick wall" or get whisked away by some dramatic event or circumstance.
        It's bound to happen sooner or later... a project that was going along smoothly gets completely derailed... another project may seem so overwhelming that you don't even know where to start... yet another project may have many events fall into place so fast that you can't even catch up.  It's all enough to make you want to throw your hands up and give up sometimes.
   So..... what to do about it in 2011?  BREAK IT DOWN!!  My Dad used to (and still does) tell me that I really don't need to try and conquer the whole world in a single day.  One of my key goals in 2011 will be to crystallize big projects into smaller, more manageable pieces... to pace myself better.  Like the old joke goes... how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!  I've got a lot of "elephant-size" projects waiting out there for me, so it's time to get myself started on them one step at a time.  With my goals in more manageable sizes, and keeping planning systems in order, I should be able to get a good start on building some momentum.
   
2. Energy, or momentum, can be conserved by paying careful attention to the direction and speed of things around me.  Then I have a choice to adjust my direction and speed accordingly and lessen impact of any potential collisions.
        My husband often jokes with me that I am not an overly observant person.  I'm a strange sort of person that can get so wrapped around some crazy detail, but then totally miss out on the bigger picture or broader headlines.  As I get older, I'm beginning to realize I need to try and find ways to adjust for this natural tendency of mine.  How often I've been going about my own business, minding my own details, only to glance up and... (BAM!) ... hit that "brick wall" I referenced in the previous bullet.  If only I had done a better job of looking up from time to time to keep in tune with my surroundings more often, that painful collision probably could have been avoided (or at least lessened).  Those collisions, or breaks in momentum, consume an extraordinary amount of energy.  It's often hard to recover and get back on track.  So, 2011 will be a year where I'll be striving to improve my sense of situation awareness to assist with better decision making.

So, I've said all that to say this... It's time for me to just get on with it and build the momentum... conserving energy to pay attention to the things around me that matter most.  Cheers to a great 2011 to come!

 You owe it to us all to get on with what you're good at. ~ W.H. Auden