The following Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Marxist and is narrated by Brock Armstrong.

How to overcome inertia and get yourself unstuck.

The 17th century physicist Isaac Newton observed in his famous laws of motion

that objects at rest stay at rest and objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside

force. You've probably experienced this phenomenon as you chase your kids baseball while it rolls for a

block and a half as you curse under your breath. You've also maybe observed it when you're parked

comfortably on the couch after a long stressful day and you know it would take all the king's men to

move you from that spot. While I'm half kidding about the second example,

I've seen the principle of inertia up close in my work over the years. People who are genuinely

committed to better health often fight a certain physical and mental resistance for a while

before the force of their own hard-earned momentum finally begins working for

them. Likewise, I've seen people who struggled early on to get their fitness routine off the

ground and eventually experience it as second nature. They breeze through their new lifestyle

where before the push to change left them in frustrated tears.

Maybe you've been there.

We tend to think of health change solely as an attitude adjustment. If our mental game is good

enough, then the physical effects are sure to follow. If we fail or backslide, it's because we aren't committed enough.

Likewise, if we're healthy and fit, we can look at those who aren't and automatically judge

their perceived lack of effort. I got my workout in. The same choice is just as easy for that person.

Or, I can walk by a vending machine without temptation, it's obvious that

he or she doesn't have any willpower. Are these statements really fair, or even accurate? Is the

inertia all in our heads? Should exercising on day one really be any harder than on day 91 when workouts are tailored to respective fitness levels?

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