I went to the dentist to get a crown (that’s a replacement piece gets put on a broken tooth) inserted.

The way the process is, you have to go to the dentist’s office three times: once to find out that the crown is needed; again to get the X-ray photos taken for the crown to be created (as it’s customized for your mouth), and a third time to have the crown installed.

My dentist’s office is an hour away from me. And I had other shit going on.

So I didn’t revisit the dentist for over a year. I didn’t have two hours to spare for my dental health.

I set an appointment to finish the work last week. My dentist had the crown ready for me, and the whole process would take about ten minutes.

Except for the discovery that my tooth had shifted.

The dentist explained that teeth shift over months or even weeks of time, especially when they’re not whole (thus needing the crown). My tooth had shifted enough that the custom crown no longer fit. It would have to be adjusted to fit the new landscape of my mouth.

Before that, though, I’d have to set an appointment and come back for a new set of X-rays.

Then the crown would be refitted (by someone else). Then I’d come back again to have it inserted.

I’ll have to pay the $200 or so for the refitting work (the dentist is nice enough to not charge me for the X-rays). The dentist’s office is an hour away, and the two appointments will be two hours of total time.

So in aggregate, saving two hours will cost me six hours and $200.

***

Doing things NOW is a habit.

Completing what you start is another habit.

And, so are the opposites of both.

We delay and wait, usually to conserve resources.

Buying some time before making a decision— usually the same decision we would’ve made from the jump.

Saving energy, doing nothing instead of something, as if that will make the job easier later on.

Keeping money in your pocket, as if holding onto it today will save you from the need to still spend it later (this touches on a deeper psychological issue that many have around money).

The problem with delay is that it kills our momentum, the positive forward-moving energy of action.

Of completion.

Of closing loops, instead of having all these open and half-done initiatives strewn about.

We can’t always finish what we start. Sometimes we don’t have the time/money/energy to do it all today. Sometimes we need the delay more than we want it.

But momentum has a strange power.

It shifts circumstances in your favor and provides resources that otherwise wouldn’t be available. And as long as you keep using it, even when you don’t know where it’ll take you, momentum will keep working…

… Until you invoke your will and kill it.

When did you stop your own momentum and end up losing more than you gained? Reply and let me know — I read all responses.

Take in the following MasterClasses on momentum and energy in motion:

#1324: How To Create And Keep Momentum

#787: Handle It And Keep Moving

#1045: How To Stop Wasting Time

#981: How To Act Decisively When The Time Is Right

#777: How Your Time Perspective Determines Your Success

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