Could High School Physics Help You Overcome What’s Holding You Back? Dun, Dun, Dunnn 🚀
To escape Earth’s gravitational influence, you have to be moving at about 11.186 km/s. It makes me sick to think about; that’s fast as hell.
But it’s got me thinking… If you have to be moving that fast to be free from gravity, how fast do you have to be moving to escape from the other things on earth that are holding you down?
Every scientific lesson and physical law has a “spiritual counterpart” — something we can apply in our own lives to increase our awareness, serve, grow, or create.
Applications for the “The Law of Escape Velocity” transcend rocket ship builds, high school physics curriculum, and future trips to Mars.
It’s a clue into how we can question what’s holding us back, build up resilience, and fuel enough speed to escape.
What‘s holding you down that you aren’t aware of?
Gravity is holding you where you are right now — on the couch, in your chair, or standing on the subway. Unless you are an aspiring rocket scientist or astronaut, I think it’s a safe bet to assume you rarely give gravity cause for though. But it is the VERY thing that’s preventing you from floating away or flying right.
The question is then, what other things are constraining you — mentally, emotionally, spiritually, fianically, or physically — that you aren’t paying attention to in this very moment? What is blocking you from reaching your potential for success or fulfillment?
- Your habits, routines, and behaviors
- Painful childhood memories
- A hostile environment
- A period of depression
- A terrible job
- Your miserable friends
None of these things are easy to escape, and some are certainly harder than others, but the first step is clear: you must acknowledge the force(s) working against you and then you can overcome them.
How much energy, attention, and time do you need to put into building the right ship?
A human being’s body cannot reach 11.186 km/s alone. The fastest km ever ran was 2 minutes, 11.89 seconds. (Just a bit off the mark.)
To escape anything in life, you need a vehicle. Something to sink a lot of time and energy into that will get you further than you could without it. It could be: Sport. Research. Entrepreneurship. Anything — so long as it drives you.
Here are some examples of people who “escaped” their own personal hell:
- Tony Robbins, who had a history of family abuse, sunk all his energy into helping other people overcome suffering. He is now the master business and life strategist and the operator over over 12 different companies.
- Jay-Z, a former ultra-successful NYC drug dealer, found rap and decided to make the safer career shift when the money was right. He is now the mutli-platinum recording artist, proficient businessman, and husband of Beyoncé.
- Oprah, who had a history of hardship and abuse, sunk all of her energy into becoming the biggest and baddest TV personality. She is now… Oprah.
- Nancy Goodman Brinker, who lost her sister Susan G. Komen early in life, decided to build a foundation to fund breast cancer research. That organization is now the the single biggest donor in the field.
For you, there is no objectively correct vehicle. There are only vehicles that work and vehicles that don’t. Your job is to refine, iterate, and change until you find what is worth sinking time, energy, and attention into on a daily basis.
In other words, what’s your why? What’s the driving mission? What are you attempting to escape for? And how are you going to do it?
PS — beware of analysis paralysis, or the tendency to get caught in the trap of thinking or planning too much. There is no perfect first step. No perfect path. Take the strategies, tips, and tricks, take the feedback from your environment, and apply the lessons.
How fast do you need to be moving?
The only way physicists and rocket scientists figured out how fast you have to be moving to escape earth’s gravity was to build models and test them. They didn’t start by knowing what “escape velocity” was.
Same for you. There is no answer. No one can tell you just how fast you need to be moving. There’s no threshold you have to objectively meet. It’s up to you to figure that out.
This is where the whole HARD WORK AND HUSTLE brigade comes in. You have to put in all of the blood, sweat, and tears that you can muster into the vehicle you’ve chosen and into becoming a better you.
Momentum is your game.
What are you moving towards?
There is no sense in focusing on what isn’t serving you anymore. The people responsible for rockets breaking earth’s gravitational pull aren’t focusing on gravity when the ships are approaching escape, they are focusing on two things:
- The velocity of the machine
- Where they’re headed & why
THIS is how you will succeed in escaping whatever it is that isn’t serving you. Focus on what you can control. Your emotions. Your work ethic. Your intent. Your energy. Your effort.
The rest is secondary.
To recap (in the most over-simplified way possible)
- Figure out what forces are pushing against you.
- Build a bad-a#& rocket ship.
- Put in the energy, time, and effort.
- Focus on what you can control.
- Escape.
