G.K. Chesterton, the great Christian writer of the early 20th century, said, “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.” This statement is the antidote for so much of what ails our culture, and specifically our home schooling. Reluctant to start until we are well prepared, and reluctant to stop until we are absolutely finished, we can find ourselves controlled by inertia.
Inertia: the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity.... Inertia is that force that causes us to stay put, to avoid getting up in the morning, or filing our income tax, or cleaning the bathroom. Inertia also is the force that keeps us going once we have begun.
Let’s look at the inertia that keeps us going once we have begun.
There is a sometimes subtle difference between inertia and diligence. Diligence is the constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is begun. This is a virtue we should practise ourselves and teach to our children. Inertia, on the other hand, is not diligence; it is the state of being driven, continuing an activity without really thinking about whether or not it is worth doing. Often inertia is motivated by perfectionism: the drive to finish a task because I will feel better about myself than if I quit. Perfectionism has little to do with being perfect, actually it has the capacity to drive us away from perfection (but let’s leave this deliberation for another time). If we look carefully, we can probably find less important tasks that are daily superseding other, more important duties, but we continue to perform the less important tasks more out of a drive to finish them than out of a certainty of their merit. The daily regimen of responsibilities in our family’s work, prayer, relationships, positive life lessons, and academic pursuits are among the most important issues during this time in our life. In the tenacity to complete secondary or less important tasks, we can undermine the success of our family life and home schooling effort.
Inertia can easily reign within a student’s studies: “I’m going to get through this if it kills me.” “You’re going to finish that Math book no matter what.” “Don’t ask me why, just do it.” Having commenced on a path, we can experience a compulsion to continue. It seems easier to just plod on than to stop and re-evaluate and choose a new approach. There are times when our home schooling and family life is best served by screeching to a halt and having a good look at what we’re doing in light of what we really want to achieve, choosing our activity with care, then proceeding. However, having mastered this inertia of movement, we may discover we are gripped by the inertia of inactivity.
Even the most stout of souls experience the inability to motivate ourselves, to just get started. Though we may feel lazy, tired or busy, below the surface there can exist a reluctance to begin, an inertia. The main reason people avoid beginning is a feeling of inadequacy. Not wanting to do a bad job, and meanwhile feeling ill-equipped for the task at hand, we are reluctant to start. Consider Proverbs 31:10 A good wife who can find? This lady sews, shops, cooks, organizes jobs for others, creates a business plan and buys land, gardens, exercises, sells produce and manufactured goods at the market, keeps her lamp burning, spins wool and serves the poor. Though the list sounds pretty impressive, do you think the good wife would be able to do all this if she were to wait until she was proficient before proceeding? She would be frozen if she had to do everything perfectly. Similarly, if we wait until we are eminently prepared before proceeding, we will achieve little. If the good wife were to have one task always squared away before embarking on another, she wouldn’t be able to do half of what she does. Similarly, if we wait until the house is perfectly in order before doing math we may never do math. Granted, a person can feel more comfortable and concentrate better in a clean, organized environment, but maintaining a balance is of greater importance. Just as it would be unwise to do school all day and never put the house in order it would be unwise to never do schooling until the house is in order. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing, even poorly.
Just knowing that inertia exists is a great first step towards fighting it. Though it is good to be aware of the inertia that perpetuates a task that no longer serves our best interests (or never did), it is imperative to be aware of the inertia that prevents us from starting. Even if our skills are limited, our plans imperfect, and our mind unclear, it is necessary to get started; for God is always calling us into the deep, where our only security is him. Ultimately he is the one who does the work, but he can only work with someone who is working.
We need to start.