Motion is the key to momentum

When I was 16, my dad used to lend me his Hyundai Pony. It was a crappy car, as I look back on it, but it was in that car I learned some of early lessons.

As a kid, I would put five dollars worth of gas in the tank and bring the car back home on fumes.

I ran out of gas once in my life and it taught me an important lesson about momentum.

I was on my way home from work, driving my dad's Pony. Without a dime in my pocket, I inched home hoping that the car would happily drive me home one more time. But this day was like no other.

The car quit about a kilometre from my parents' home. I had a choice walk home or push the car home. I didn't think Dad had any gas at the house, so walking home without the car seemed futile. Plus, I was gonna get some bullshit lecture about always running the car on empty.

In my adolescent thinking, I thought the old man would be proud of me that I took the responsibility of tethering his Pony and walking it home. Plus I'm a bit stubborn, so I opened the driver's door, put the transmission in neutral and pushed with one hand on the door while steering with the other hand.

My first attempted step, my sneaker slipped overtop of the asphalt road, not budging the car. "C'mon, it's only a Pony. Surely, I can push this shitbox home", I thought to myself. After a few nudges the car started to move. At first it was only a few inches, but it was moving. We were on a straight away. It wasn't regular walking. It was more like taking baby steps while making sure the equine beast didn't wander into the bushes on either side of the road.

We were moving. As time went by, the pushing got easier to the rate that I was almost walking normally. I could've given up. It made more sense to just walk home. But I wasn't going to leave my dad's car on the side of the road. My big concern as I tiptoed home was a small hill I had to climb just before dad's house. It wasn't really a hill. It was more of a slight incline. If the momentum that I was building up didn't continue and maybe increase, I might not make it over the hill.

I was about to start the ascent when my dad's smart ass alcoholic friend stopped and told me that cars don't work very well without fuel. I thought he was going to help me get over the hill, so I stopped. Instead, he sped off after he got a laugh at my expense.

Having lost all of my momentum, I had worked so hard for, the car stopped moving. I couldn't get it going again. Motion is what I needed. Motion would've easily carried me over the incline and coasted me and the vehicle safely to dad's stable.

But I lost it, and I had to go home in shame, without my dad's mechanical steed.

Life lesson:
Anything you want in life requires motion. With enough movement, you will inch little by little toward your goal. But you can't stop. It'll be extremely hard in the beginning. But it gets easier. Consistency is the key. Keep the motion going and if you do it long enough and in the right direction, there will be enough momentum to carry you over that improbable hill so you can coast a bit down the other side. Don't coast too long once over the apex because momentum disappears as motion declines.