It’s Easier to Maintain Business Momentum Than Overcome Inertia

Actually my title for this post is a shortened version. It should have been:

In business, just as in physics, and in life in general, it’s easier to maintain momentum than to overcome inertia.

My two best examples are neither physics nor business: diet and exercise. You know full well what I mean. Keeping the healthy routine, in either one of these, is easier than letting go and restarting. I’ve known this one from both sides. I’m sure. And I’ll bet nobody’s arguing.

I’ll bet that with those examples in mind you can think of a lot of examples in business. Of course there are the blogs, Twitter and Facebook presences, email campaigns, newsletters, word of mouth in general, awareness, branding, plus a lot of things related to tools and systems, plus teamwork, and even human nature.

Where I see it a lot, because of my special focus, is in business planning. To make planning work for you and your organization, it’s better to keep it going, keep it in mind, keep it easy to access, keep bringing it up and reviewing and revising. If your planning is about a document in a drawer somewhere, then it’s not very useful.

Don’t let down. Ease off if you have to, but don’t let down entirely. If you do, it’s too hard to get the momentum going again.