#53. Atharv’s Chronicle : 15-07-2026 Momentum is what it takes!

Welcome back to another edition of Atharv’s Chronicle!

Have you ever come across a scenario where you had trouble getting started, but once you somehow pushed yourself and got going, everything flowed smoothly?

It can be anything, going to the gym, starting a speech on stage, starting a conversation, reading a book, completing a project. Anything, basically.

We often call it “starting trouble.”

But it’s actually a momentum trouble.

Let’s try to understand momentum, borrowed from physics.

p = mv — that’s the momentum equation.

Momentum = the ability to keep increasing or developing; the force that makes something move faster and faster.

In physics, momentum is a measure of an object’s “quantity of motion.” It’s calculated as the product of its mass (m) and velocity (v). Essentially, it describes how difficult it is to stop or turn a moving object.

Have you ever found it very difficult to get started, but once you did, you couldn’t stop? There was no going back.

On bad days, I pull myself to the gym telling myself I’ll just do the cardio today. But once I’m there, after the warm-up, headphones on, favourite playlist running, I won’t easily walk out before 90 minutes. Full workout, followed by cardio. It’s not that I didn’t want to work out that day. It’s just that I wasn’t having momentum.

That’s the power of momentum. If we can just start, the mass and velocity we carry take over and we get going.

Here, mass and velocity refer to the motivation we have for the task and the speed at which we want to complete it.

Two simple examples make this clearer:

Massive objects: A slowly rolling heavy truck has high momentum because of its massive weight.

Fast objects: A tiny bullet has immense momentum because of its extreme speed.

Stationary objects: An object at rest has a velocity of 0, meaning it possesses no momentum.

So momentum can be built either by little mass and huge velocity, or huge mass and little velocity, or a bit of both. But neither can be zero, otherwise the object stays stationary.

Translate that to us: mass is motivation, velocity is urgency. Keep either one high, even if the other is low, and we build enough momentum to get going. But when both are zero, when we’re neither motivated nor under any pressure, there’s a high chance we never start. And things that never start can never be completed.

That’s how my Monday momentum philosophy began.

There isn’t a single week where I’ve worked out only on Mondays and skipped the rest. I easily complete 4-5 sessions a week, because I’ve built momentum. I make sure I never skip more than two days at a stretch.

And why Monday? Because we humans are wired to believe we need an auspicious moment to begin, the start of a month, the start of a year, the start of a week. I take advantage of that on every Monday. I make sure to move on Monday, and the rest of the week carries itself.

It’s not just fitness I build momentum on. Every Sunday, I sit and plan a list of things to act on through the week, and Monday is where that plan gets its push.

Monday is also when I post my workout picture on Instagram, and only on Monday. It’s part of building the same momentum visually, and it keeps me accountable to the week I just planned. Most of the time, Instagram isn’t even on my phone. I install it only when I need to post that Monday picture, then it’s gone again. I use social media for my growth. I won’t let it use me.

I apply this same momentum philosophy to other kinds of work too.

Say I’m working on a project due by the weekend. If my motivation is low and the task isn’t urgent, I find ways to manufacture urgency, a deadline I set for myself, a person I tell I’ll finish by. By hook or by crook, I make myself sit at the desk and get started. And then there’s no turning back. I get up only for breakfast or lunch, and keep working until the task is done, or until I’ve made significant progress.

That’s the power of momentum.

Momentum is mass in motion.

Just like a heavy truck can’t easily be stopped once it’s rolling (forget the brakes, that’s a different philosophy), or just like a bullet can’t easily be stopped once it’s fired from a gun, once we’re moving with momentum, it’s not easy to stop us either.

We can complete what we’ve started only if we have momentum. We can sustain things for the long run, build consistency, build great habits, if we attain mastery over building momentum.

So the next time we’re stuck at the start line, remember, it’s rarely about motivation, and it’s rarely about time. It’s about momentum. We don’t need to feel ready. We just need to move. Find our mass, find our velocity, even a little of either is enough to get going. Because once we’re in motion, physics is on our side.

Starting trouble was never a discipline problem. It was always a momentum problem.

Build it once. Let it carry us.

– Atharv Prasanna