A State of Inertia

In jiu-jitsu, momentum is everything. Strength, timing, technique, and resilience are all essential ingredients, but these coalesce into momentum. The moment you begin a grappling match, equilibrium is set and the clock runs yearning for a disruption. The primary variable in this exchange is momentum. You and your partner are grappling for precious momentum to achieve a finish - a submission.

If momentum shifts in your favor, you may acquire an advantage and emerge victorious. To the contrary, a shift in favor of your opponent and you may be doomed. The point is, grappling is like life — victory favors the bold, you don’t rise to the level of your expectations, you fall to the level of your training, your ego will be annihilated in unimaginable ways, and, critically, momentum must be maintained throughout.

In ordinary life, momentum comes and goes. It is exchanged freely within our physical, emotional state. When it recedes, the diminution can become a state of inertia — overpowering defenses and inducing a slow suffocation, like a well applied triangle choke. The loss of momentum not only begets a physical change, it also produces a psychological dilemma. When you begin to go down, suffer setbacks, encounter a disadvantageous position, the psychological defeat commences well before the physical. Your mind quits long before your body. The dilemma is such that momentum becomes elusive the longer our minds register the negative position in which we find ourselves. Inertia rises. 

To combat this, we need to produce. The modern way of life trains us as consumers. This way of being feeds the inertia. Producing something gives us meaning and the possibility to explore, learn, fail, succeed, and ultimately, more momentum to create and do what gives us meaning. It is active where consuming is passive. It is decisive and powerful over acquiescing and meek. The agency you feel when you’re creative and giving is momentum and it is strength and effervescence.