Written By: Milton TuTu
One subject I struggled to understand in high school was chemistry.
I just could not comprehend studying something that I couldn’t relate to and the worst is, it is volatile. If you leave chemistry for a week, it will leave you for a month.
What actually got me excited about science was physics. I actually had hopes of being an aeronautic engineer but, well…
One thing that got(gets) me really excited about physics is how it is practically applicable to our everyday life.
How you say? The newton’s 3rd law of motion for instance says that, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”
You can see how practical that is right? I mean, if Isaac Newton was of this generation he would have been a thought leader. Lol. I digress.
Let’s disect this thought gradually…
There is a term in physics that has puzzled me for a while. It’s called…
...inertia
It is a property of matter by which it continues to be in an existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless the state is changed by an external force..
Okay let me break this down.
In simple terms, inertia is your ability to be at a constant position of rest until something moves you to action..
Stay with me…
This first situation describes the situation of a handful of us. We are constantly in a state of rest not because we can’t move but sometimes because we enjoy being in a state of rest.. This can be termed laziness.
There are others who are in a state of rest by decision. There are many reasons for this but the most available to me at the moment is because they have worked so hard so they just need to rest, retreat and generate more energy to continue the journey.
We have the last set of people.
They are in a state of rest by situation…
These set of people have gone through a lot of emotional, physical and spiritual abuse so they decided to “rest” because they feel they can’t do anything or because they have limited options available to them.
Most of these people have gone through the worst of situations life has to offer so they decide to do nothing about the situation.
These set of individuals are termed to be in a state of “learned helplessness”. They have learned and become accustomed to the being helpless.
So we have 3 categories….
The first category are in a state of rest by laziness, the second category are in a state of rest by decision and the last category are in a state of rest by situation.
Though the people in these different categories are different, they have one thing in common, capacity.
Capacity can be defined from two different lens…
The maximum amount that something or someone can contain and,
…..the amount that something or someone can produce.
Like I said earlier on, capacity is a common denominator.
We all have the capacity to move and in whatever state of rest we are at the moment, we will eventually move because we have the ability to. But before we move, we need to first increase our capacity to be able to contain the next position we are getting to in life.
For instance, if you have a 10L bottle, is it possible to pour in 20L of water into it?
Not at all!!!It can’t even contain 11L water.
Not even 10.1L
What do you do in this situation?
You either increase the bottle’s capacity to be able to receive more water, or you change the bottle altogether…
This applies to you also, there is a level of success you can’t get to in life because you don’t have the capacity to contain that level of success.
No, it’s not a bad thing. It’s for your own good. If a bag of cement is given to a 5 year old, he will break down. He doesn’t have the capacity to carry the bag of cement.
Sometimes it’s not that we don’t have the capacity to receive more, we do, but the problem is we are not teachable.
We think the little knowledge or achievement we have, is all there is to life.
A wise man once said that, “Wisdom involves knowing that the information available is inefficient for the journey ahead”.
So, if you are on this table, detox yourself of pride and arrogance, sit down and be teachable.
Now taking cognizance of the second definition of capacity which is,
…..the amount that something or someone can produce.
If you want to produce more you have to increase your capacity to receive more. You can’t produce what you don’t have. For it’s what you receive that you can give.
Whatever state of inertia you are in at the moment, work on your capacity to receive more and also your capacity to produce more.
How do you increase your capacity in both?
I will leave you to answer that question but while you answer it, know this…
CAPACITY IS NOT BUILT ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
Go back and read that again but this time slowly….
