HOW TO DEFEAT GRAVITY

HOW TO DEFEAT GRAVITY

I was noticing something day before yesterday as I stopped in a little slot canyon in the Escalante to make a photo or two. What I did, something we all do all the time, made me stop and think about how we have learned since we were very small to defeat gravity.

DEFEAT.
GRAVITY.

I was standing next to a small stream in Utah, the Escalante River to be exact, and I wanted to jump to the other side for a different view.

As I stood there I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to just stand there and leap from that spot to the other side which was probably about 4 feet away. (Yes, Bri Austin could do it, but not me.)

So I backed up a couple of steps and got a little stride going and easily cleared the cold water to land on the other side.

I could have stood there and – knowing that it would indeed be futile – try to jump from that stationary position and landed smack in the middle of the river. It wasn’t deep, but I was wearing my motorcycle boots and getting them soaked in the river is NEVER a good idea.

I had many options to choose to get over the little stream without wrecking my Wolverines.

I could wish really hard that I was on the other side.
I could pull out a book on river jumping and read it cover to cover… twice.
I could find an online class.
I could Google it for a succinct synopsis on river jumping.
I could check YouTube.
I could hit Instagram to see other people jumping rivers wearing awesome outfits.
I could call my friends and ask for their advice.
I could pray.
I could just decide to want it really really really bad.
If there was a hotline for river jumpers, I could call that… but I don’t think there is. (Hot new idea for entrepreneurs…free!)

There were so many options.

And none of them would have gotten me farther than about halfway.

But I backed up, and I took a bit of a run at it KNOWING that my weight (32#’s less than 7 months ago) and speed (OK, that word just feels wrong… how about ‘lumbering intentionally’) would help carry me over that swiftly flowing creek.

I would use momentum.

Momentum…

mo·men·tum
/mōˈmen(t)əm,məˈmen(t)əm/
noun
1. PHYSICS
the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.
2. the impetus gained by a moving object.
“the vehicle gained momentum as the road dipped”

I knew that I could leverage the speed I had (velocity) and the body mass I wore (elegantly, I may say) and create enough POWER to get over the stream easily.

MOMENTUM.

Same as with photography and your business.

Momentum will take you farther than you can go without it.

How do you get momentum?

Constantly and consistently work on your craft.
Constantly and consistently remind others of what you do.
Constantly and consistently be ready with new ideas and new work to show.
Constantly and consistently be ready to supply someone with a visual ideation that will help them do what they need to do.
Constantly and consistently be constant and consistent.

And voila… you build the momentum little by little.

Now if I had run right up to the edge of the stream, stopped, and then tried to jump it from that once again static position….?

Splash. Followed by very colorful adult language.

The key is constantly and consistently moving toward your goal. For me, at that point, it was getting to the other side of the river. At other times it may be me wanting to become a better writer, or being able to teach better.

Starting and stopping in fits of ‘creative explosions’ are not going to cut it… believe me.

So we keep at it.
Keep shooting and writing and drawing and dancing and leaping and singing… until we are better than we were earlier (hours, days, weeks, months, years… it all adds up.)

And we use the mass and velocity of what we have created to jump ahead and go further than we could have ever believed possible.