Finding Some Motivation
The sun is finally out, the days are longer and the watermelon is in season. It seems like everything is in alignment and life should be smooth sailing. It seems like motivation should be high and shit should be getting done. And yet its not. The to do list still feels heavy. Getting up in the morning still seems exhausting. The workouts definitely aren’t getting easier. And the long days can feel especially long. With everything going in the right direction, why is finding motivation so hard? It seems like we have all been waiting for this summer with so much hope and anticipation. So why does it feel like everything is a little bit tougher and a little bit slower?
Lately my to do lists are the only thing keeping me from a leisurely pace of social media and binge watching Yellowstone. Those to do lists are giving me the push I need to make happy hour start at 5pm on the weekends and not noon. Most days, I am making my way through by checking things off my lists. Even when my list includes “make cookies.” I thought my lack of motivation had more to do with the weather or the lack of vitamin D. I thought that the structure of the school year and the every day stresses of a puppy were the things dragging me down. And even though those are all relevant, I don’t feel like my head is quite above water. I still feel like I am struggling to put the pep in my step. The excuses are becoming old, the complaining is becoming annoying. And at some point it has more to do with how I am choosing to be than what really lies ahead.
Allowing ourselves to get into the groove of the ordinary or the stagnant is only going to breed more of that. Giving ourselves an excuse to hunker down or hide out isn’t going to make it easier to get out and do. Sometimes all we need is to just show up, even if it’s in our pajamas. Sometimes all we need is to just get out of bed, even if we are only half awake. Because that will get us one step closer to where we want to be. The little steps get us a lot further along our paths, as long as we keep taking them.
Times have changed. We have aged two and a half years since our first lock down. We have been through stresses and challenges that we had no guidance for or support to manage. What we don’t need right now is to compare ourselves to our past. It doesn’t matter what you weighed before Covid. It doesn’t matter what your PR’s were. It just doesn’t matter. What does matter is where we are today and how we are going to move ahead into the future. We need to focus on the right now.
Lately, I’ve been showing up for my workouts just wanting them to be done. There isn’t a lot of grit or drive. There isn’t a huge adrenaline rush. I am just not in the mood for it. The thought of setting some great personal record doesn’t even enter my mind. The thought of grinding through a challenging workout or pushing myself to greatness falls so much shorter. My goal is to keep showing up. My goal is to keep pushing myself to the place that success awaits.
It is easy to make excuses when motivation is low. It is easy to put the blame on everything that isn’t going our way in life. It is so much easier to stay in bed. But easier has the downside of pushing us further from our motivation and our goals. At some point we do need to move past the heaviness and find some sort of light. We need to rekindle our love of community and drive. We need to reconnect with ourselves and the people we want to be right now and into the future. We need to start getting uncomfortable in our decisions and start pushing ourselves past the leisurely states that has become easy to rely on.
I know what motivation feels like and I know I don’t feel a lot of it right now. I know what it feels like to wake up in the morning ready to tackle each and everything that lies ahead. And I know that right now my to do lists are saving my ass. But that knowledge is also helping me sail though this time and allowing myself a little space to redefine or re-find my mojo.
We need to give into the moment, to give up on our expectations. We need to embrace the now and not wish for tomorrow. We need to show up when we don’t want to, so we know how to really show up when we need to. This is the best time to force some motivation on ourselves. We don’t need to give 100 percent. We don’t need to look towards perfection. We can use these warm, long days filled with vitamin D to start finding our way towards motivation.