The Physics of Success explains a lot of stuff. Once you get certain assumptions out of the way, the way the world works is not very complicated. The results may look complicated, but the principles that brought them about are fairly simple. It is like those really complex Rube Goldberg domino mazes. The basic function is simple – one domino falls against another, which falls against another, and so on. The results can be pretty amazing, but what’s happening at any particular instant is very simple.
Success Principles work for doctors, lawyers, chefs, or anybody. That tells us that Success Principles have nothing to do with medicine, law, food, or anything else that you may do for a living. As we go through each day, we deal with patients, clients, patrons, co-workers, friends, family. We plow through email. We pay bills. Things break, the weather is crappy, somebody in your life is having an emergency (real or perceived). And all the Success Principles in the world aren’t going to fix any of that stuff right here, right now.
As a result, it’s easy to understand why Success Principles get put on the back burner. However effective they are in the long-term, nothing seems to happen right now, so there is no immediate feedback. So, when you let things slide, nothing seems to happen. There are things to do that get you results right now.
It’s the whole inertia thing described in the book. You’re on a big ship. You turn the wheel and nothing happens – for a while. You are moving through the Universe along with everything else. You may not be as big as a ship, but you’re moving a lot faster; it’s going to take a little while for you to see any results.
Our problem is that we are creatures with limited patience that respond well to instant gratification. For instance, you probably wouldn’t wait 30 seconds for this web page to load. So, we throw the wheel over, nothing happens, so we throw it back, or worse, just stop paying attention. The fact is, we did something, only it probably wasn’t enough to make a big difference. Every time you look at something and think, “Gee, I’d like to have that!” you are throwing the wheel in that direction. Of course, the instant you start thinking it’s too expensive or something like that, you’re pretty much throwing the wheel back in the other direction.
The very cool thing about employing Success Principles is that they really don’t take a lot of time, and they are basically free. All it takes is a little attention applied consistently over a period of time.
