Curious about Momentum - Do You Have It? Where Do You Get It?

As I have mentioned previously, I teach seven to nine fitness classes a week. Many of the students feel that if they don’t jump around frantically or move with speed, they are not getting a hard workout. But the opposite happens.

You see, when we jump and move fast we build momentum, which in turn helps us to move more easily. When we don’t have the building and help of momentum we have to work harder. It is similar to Jim Collin’s flywheel analogy. In the beginning, we must push with all our might to move the wheel - even a little. But, as we keep on, it starts to move more, and finally gains enough momentum from its own weight to keep it moving.

In searching for quotations using momentum, I was surprised that there were fewer than usual and that many didn’t come close to what I was expecting.

Let’s start with the definition of momentum: “The quantity of motion in a moving body, being always proportioned to the quantity of matter multiplied into the velocity; impetus.”

Next, I will share the quotations I found that were the closest to what I had in mind as the positive qualities possessed by momentum and having momentum.

• “When you're that successful, things have a momentum, and at a certain point you can't really tell whether you have created the momentum or it's creating you.” - Annie Lennox
• “Success comes from taking the initiative and following up... persisting... eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” - Tony Robbins
• “Enthusiasm is the energy and force that builds literal momentum of the human soul and mind.” - Bryant H. McGill
• “Many long years of pleasant toil and exertion had done their work. A full momentum of prosperity had been given to my engineering business at Patricroft.” - James Nasmyth
• “The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” - Frances E. Willard

So, how do we get and use momentum in our lives and businesses? I think that it is just like the exercising. When we start, we have to work a lot harder to move. We will experience setbacks and even pain. But, if we keep on keeping on, the momentum will build and start to help us and will make everything easier.

Michael Korda summed it all up when he wrote, “One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.”

And then, there are momentum quotations with a whole different approach:

• "Most of life is routine - dull and grubby, but routine is the momentum that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street." - Ben Nicholas
• "If your position is everywhere, your momentum is zero." - William N. Lipscomb, Jr.
• "I just wanna build momentum again. Keeping yourself in work is one thing, keeping yourself in good work's another. But if it doesn't work out, so be it. As the Taoists say, 'Learn to accept that which you cannot change.'" - Ian Hart
• "To have no heroes is to have no aspiration, to live on the momentum of the past, to be thrown back upon routine, sensuality, and the narrow self." - Charles Horton Cooley

For the rest of the week, I will leave you with a technical-sounding quotation to think about and ponder on. Charles J. Givens wrote, “Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort."