Let it not run out of steam now…

The cleanliness drive is a good beginning. Let’s make sure it doesn’t run out of steam.

The students of my batch set up an English club. They would meet every week and do discussions. The objective was to achieve better English communication skills. The activity went very well for a few weeks. Many students would attend and there was a lot of active participation. However, very soon, everybody ran out of steam. Slowly, the attendance dropped down to 1 or 2.

“Run out of steam” – that’s the phrase for us in this post. What could it mean? Can you think of an imagery to connect it to?

Think of a steam engine. Huffing and puffing and chugging along on its rails. It throws steam from its exhausts and runs through forests and villages across the rivers. Now, all of a sudden, all the steam gets over. What will happen now?

Well, the engine will stop. And this happened because the engine ran out of steam.

Thus, when you lose the energy or enthusiasm to do something which you were doing for sometime, it is said that you have run out of steam. Losing the mojo to continue an initiative is what running out of steam is all about.

Let’s take some examples:

1. Everyone thought the anti corruption movement has run out of steam when Anna parted ways with his team. However, the activists soon showed that they were in no mood to let the movement die.
2.  The new DM started the cleanliness drive in the city with a lot of fanfare. However, soon the drive ran out of steam and the roads were back to being littered with dry leaves and grabage.

Running out of steam means some project stalling midway because of the key people losing energy or motivation. It’s like a powerful steam engine running impressively for a while and then stopping dead in its tracks.

Let’s close with some more examples:

1. The new group of residents started some social work activities but it soon ran out of steam.
2. The terrorists will run out of steam if they stop getting the media coverage.