If you are reading this - thank you! And welcome! This is the beginning of a new creative project for me. You know about the same amount as I do when it comes to what to expect. And that’s the point! Selfishly, I am initiating this quest to improve my writing, aiming to find my voice (wow that sounds cliche) and explore topics that might be engaging. But I also hope that you might gain something from reading this too. Because if not, then I really would be just another narcissist blabbing on the internet and I really wouldn’t know where to go from there (it’s not like I don’t pay my therapist enough already).
So let’d dive right in, shall we? I thought it only fitting to start by discussing my theory of momentum - the driving force behind this creative undertaking. To do this I’d like to first present you with the stories of three very different individuals who I believe demonstrate this theory well.
Firstly, Casey Neistat is renowned on the internet, for essentially creating the ‘vlog’ style video that completely took over YouTube around 2015. While most video creators at the time tended to upload one video per week, a feat in itself that required a remarkable level of work and consistency, Neistat created high-quality daily videos for an unbelievable 800 days. Through this unrelenting dedication he grew from small-time film-maker to amassing over 10 million subscribers, cementing his name as one of the greats in the digital story-telling space.
Next, Savannah Sachdev, started running during COVID lockdowns as a way to release energy and alleviate anxiety. She made a commitment to run every single day and has continued now for over 1000 days, gaining a cult-like following on her Instagram, TikTok and YouTube accounts. She has leveraged this attention into a full-time career in social media.
Finally, David Gauntlett is a leading creativity researcher and author. In May 2004, he undertook a project to do a drawing every day as a way to put his research into practice. Although David had no real desire to become a professional illustrator, he found that consistently showing up had surprising benefits in his life outside of doing these daily doodles. Throughout this experiment he noted that constraints often led to more, not less, creativity.
I’d now like you picture a Newton’s Cradle - we’ve all seen one before, right? A Newton’s Cradle is a toy commonly found on office desks, made of five or so silver balls suspended by strings. When one ball is held high and then let go it strikes the next shiny sphere, ricocheting, making the ball on the opposite side magically arc into the air, demonstrating the physical phenomenon of momentum.
According to Newton, momentum is the product of mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, having magnitude and direction. Now, I did Year 12 physics but that definition still leaves my brain feeling a little bit like scrambled eggs. Let’s try another definition - momentum is the force that keeps an event developing and making progress after it has started.
Now, why the heck am I talking about this scientific concept anyway?
Well, I believe that our lives are controlled by momentum more than we think. Certainly, my adult life has been manipulated by this force. The decisions I made as a naive 18-year-old, snowballed, leading me on a seemingly random series of events to now, a nearly 30-year-old starting a blog on the internet. Who would’ve thought (not me)?
If I’ve learnt one thing about being in my twenties it’s that there is no pause button on life. This wild ride as seen me attempt six university degrees (I graduated from two, don’t worry), trips overseas to ‘find myself’ (cringe), countless dingy share houses, friendships come and gone, bad first dates, failed flings and finding love. Even that weird two years of lockdown didn’t really succeed in slowing us down.
So, it follows that if life is just going to keep showing up, knocking at the front door, chucking challenges at you at a roaring pace, then you may as well do whatever you bloody well can to make sure those hurdles are ones that you want to be jumping over. And that the finish line is somewhere that you want to be.
My theory is this: Good things come from positive action. Continuous positive action creates momentum. Momentum leads to progress (and expected opportunities).
So I guess that’s why I am here, writing this article at 3pm on a random Wednesday afternoon. I’m taking action. If Casey Neistat, Savannah Sachdev or David Gauntlett taught me anything, it’s that you never really know where life might take you but through consistent positive action you can transform your life in one way or another.
I’m starting this blog in the hopes that writing one article will lead to two, three, and many more, with no real knowledge of exactly where it might end up. But I trust that momentum will take the reigns, creating something bigger and better than before.
The wise words of Beyonce (“don’t be afraid to be seen trying”) and Hannah Montana (“nobody’s perfect”) come to mind, and if I’m going to model my life off of anyone, I may as well choose one of these icons. I promise to push perfectionism aside, to write, and to share my thoughts with the world, whether they be big or minuscule, profound or totally mundane.
All good creative endeavours need rules, right? Well, here are mine:
I vow to post one new article each week (maybe more if I’m feeling frisky?)
And, I vow to try my absolute hardest (because it’s the effort that counts)
I hope that in sharing my thoughts with you, we can go on this journey (yikes!) together. That we can entangle each other in a web of momentous force, adding energy and excitement to each other’s lives and hopefully ending up somewhere totally different than where we started (because if life’s not an adventure then what are we even doing here?!).
Again, welcome and thank you for reading! Let’s get this ball rolling.