Nothing in the laws of forward motion suggests that the forces that slows us down should be clear and obvious.
Some opposing forces are unwittingly nurtured when we choose to do things because they’re the most familiar thing we know, not because they are necessarily the best thing to do.
Some opposing forces are recognized by a few select peers but go unreported because not everyone feels comfortable sharing the problems and risks that they think they see.
Some opposing forces defy detection despite having the best instrumentation — markets sometimes unexpectedly dip, and storms do occasionally come out of left field.
If you simply wait, most of these opposing forces reveal themselves through the steep costs they eventually incur: large numbers of discontent customers and peers, upstream and down stream delays, a drop in market position.
Alternatively, you can choose to seek out and uncover these issues in their infancy when they are less harmful. It’s possible to ask ‘why’ more often about the routines that you’ve probably become a little too comfortable with, it’s possible to make an effort to build a culture of open communication. And for the issues that no one truly could’ve seen coming: it’s possible to rise to the occasion in a way that enables the storm to be weathered better.
Creating impactful work and doing right by the people you aim to serve requires a recognition and sense of urgency for the problems likely at play that you can’t see yet.
When it comes to ambitions/decisions/habits -- basically everything that we actually do outside of our heads lol -- I find that the strongest opposing forces are just as you described. Hidden in sight. We always think it's the most obvious opposing force that is holding us back, but it's the hidden backlog of small concessions made overtime that have created an infrastructure of basically gating us from our intentions.
I think an opposite opposing force might be --> Asshole people in our lives we can't get away from (maybe a boss for a job we need?).
And i think the hidden in sight concessions that lead to such seemingly unmovable opposing forces are more difficult to unravel. Things like--> Why do you need that job in the first place? What values did you come to decide that made you need a certain standard of living that makes that job the only one that can afford you it? How did you come to make that decision in the first place? Why did you allow that decision to be made like that? Are you making decisions like that in other domains of your life?