The Flywheel

I once read a book called "Good to Great." It's a book about business, but wisdom is where you find it, and the book contains an excellent chapter about momentum. I'm going to be totally paraphrasing my references in this post because I loaned the book to a friend about 3 years ago and never got it back.

Here's the gist: things that are great seem to move by their own momentum, but getting that momentum started takes a tremendous amount of patience and effort. A flywheel is a large, round, massive device that moves around an axis, like a wheel. To get a flywheel moving seems like an impossible task, and truly, the first few bits of movement are the hardest. You push and push, and the flywheel doesn't move. You take a deep breath and push, and finally, you eke out the slightest bit of movement. At least you've proven to yourself that the flywheel does move.

You take another deep breath and push, and just when you feel that you can't push any more you get another inch or so of movement. And before the flywheel can settle into place, you take another deep breath and keep pushing. The next inch or two of movement comes easier. Bit by bit, breath by breath, you keep pushing and the flywheel keeps moving. Now it is moving easier. When you let go, it doesn't immediately stop. But it's moving painfully slowly. So you keep pushing.

After a time, and after a lot of pushing, you realize that the flywheel is moving at a pretty good pace. In fact, the flywheel has so much momentum that you almost have to get out of the way to avoid getting run over by it. The flywheel will continue spinning for a long time because of its great mass and great momentum.

The point is that creating something great doesn't happen overnight. And the initial pushing to create momentum can seem to yield results very disproportionate to the effort being made. But we need a long-term view to understand that greatness doesn't happen overnight. When Ernest Hemingway was asked how he went bankrupt, he responded, "Slowly, then suddenly." So it is with greatness. We keep pushing and seeing incremental results until, suddenly, we have achieved something wonderful.

Beginning

This blog is dedicated to exploring and seeking the natural harmony in everyday life.

Before you file this away as another typical postmodern blog, let me assure you that's not what it's about. I believe that modern life is full of things that enable harmony -- technology is magnificent in how it simplifies our lives. Often we think of simplicity as "getting back to nature" or doing away with modern things, but this is living in denial. We are where we are. This world moves fast. We ought to find simplicity and harmony where we live. That's the focus I hope to bring to my posts, which will, I promise you, have a very wide footprint of topics.

Thanks!