Page 2 - Momentum by Cassandra S. Shaw, Ph.D., CPC.

MOMENTUM

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

– HELEN KELLER

Mary is 5’6” and 180 lbs. of all muscle. She has a shoulder harness, waist harness, and leg
harness attached to her medium-build frame. Attached to the harness is a 75 lb. heavy metal

chain. What is on the other end? A 5,000 lb. automobile.
Mary steadies herself. She plants her feet with one in front of the other, knees bent slightly,

and her upward body leaning forward. She grips the harness at the shoulders. She takes one last

deep breath and walks forward. Wait. Nothing moved. In fact, she was jerked backwards.
Mary shakes her head, replants herself, and tries again. Still nothing. Mary changes tactics.

She digs deeper and this time she does not let herself get jerked backwards. Instead, she moves
to the right side and digs in. Then, she moves to the left side and digs in. Mary keeps trying all

different directions without stopping. At one point, she turns around, grabs the chain with her

gloved hands, and tries to pull the automobile into motion. She keeps herself in motion, turns
back around, and for a split second she swears she felt the automobile move. She really digs in

now. With each step, she feels a tiny movement of the automobile.
Mary knows she must not stop or all the momentum she’d worked so hard to gain would

stop. She must keep building the momentum until the automobile is moving freely, with Mary’s
guidance. It happens! Mary is now in a good rhythm with the automobile moving with her. If

Mary moves left, it moves left. If she moves right, it moves right. At first, it is slow going, then

as Mary keeps the momentum, speed picks up. Mary and the automobile are in sync with each
other. Mary wonders if she can now pick up the pace and jog while pulling it?

When we try to achieve things in life and career, we are trying, sometimes, to pull a 5,000
lb. automobile. We need to take a cue from Mary and keep moving, changing directions when

needed, and when the momentum starts, we keep going until we are no longer tugging and

pulling. What we’re doing is free flowing and we’re guiding the momentum.