It’s called Activation Energy. This is the energy it costs to start a reaction. Looking at it from a wider perspective, it’s the energy you spend to get anything going. Unsurprisingly, this cost isn’t static. One day, an activity might take a small amount of energy to get going. Another day, it might take much more.
Case in point: It was really cold yesterday. On top of that, the wind was pretty brutal. But the Sun was out in patches, and my inclination was to go out for a walk in it. But the cold. I almost didn’t do it. Why go out in that, I’d ask myself, when you’ve got a perfectly good treadmill?
Because it’s outside, that’s why. Still, stretching out, and getting bundled up, took so much effort to get started. Even after I took those first steps, cleared the driveway, and headed up the road, I was questioning my decision. The wind seemed to pass through my gloves, and layers like they weren’t there at all.
Then I started warming up and the cold became manageable. The wind – which was, by far, the worst part – still had an edge, but it was blunted.
I got 4 miles and some change in that day. On the way back I stopped at a crossroads, paused the podcast, and popped the earbuds out. I stood there for a time under the open sky listening to the absolute lack of anything human-made. That moment was one of the highlights of my walk, and it was worth the activation energy it cost me to get there. It was worth the chill of popping those earbuds back in after they’d had a minute to hit ambient temperature. It was even worth the time it took to defrost when I got back inside – don’t want to jump straight in the shower when there are bits of you that are colder then the rest.
What the point of all this?
Doing something you enjoy is always worth the initial cost you pay in action energy. Even if that cost is higher than it usually is.
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other – and yourself.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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