A Motivation Intervention
Why is it so hard to find motivation sometimes?
To any of you who have been following this blog and wondering if you’ve heard the last words of wisdom from me, fear not! The House of Why is still around to seek answers to all the why’s you can or can’t imagine. As long as the Earth doesn’t have a close encounter with a meteor larger than the one that landed in Russia, there will always be a why.
In the event that you have been curious regarding my unannounced hiatus, all I can say is I had motivationitis. You know, the -itis that makes it difficult to find the motivation to push yourself forward. There are different and multiple causes of motivationitis, but in my particular case it was being sick with one illness or another for over 2 months straight, feeling the stress of my family and fiance meeting for the first time over the holidays, getting all the Christmas presents made/bought in time, preparing for East Coast and West Coast wedding ceremonies, looking for a house… Well, you get the picture. Although I wanted to perform my civic duty in addressing the issue of why, I simply had no oomph in me to do it for a spell.
So, what makes motivation such an elusive entity from time to time for all of us? If you ask the experts, motivation (or the lack of it) has a lot to do with our confidence, focus, and direction. When you’re negative and afraid of failing, when you’re not concentrating on a particular goal, and when you’re not planning a day-to-day regimen that will help you realize your goal, then you’re pretty much shooting yourself in the foot. I’d also like to add that when you feel so exhausted and burned out, that also kills any motivation or desire to get back on the horse and keep plowing away.
Sometimes, you need to give yourself a good kick or jump start to get going again. Sometimes, you need to give yourself a little time and rest, like I needed to do, before you feel motivated to continue. Motivation isn’t an exact science and it’s not the same with everyone. Someone telling you to just get off your butt do it isn’t (always) going to help get you moving. Ultimately, we have to be our own motivators to get ourselves going.
Why can’t it just be a little easier and quicker, though, to want to take that first step back?
Why, indeed.
Yes, we all get bogged down and lose our motivation at times. For me, I think it’s because I’m impatient. For example, while working on our son’s kitchen remodel, I was losing my motivation while performing the little details that go with a proper remodel. I wasn’t seeing progress fast enough, so I switched gears and painted a color on the soffit area. That got me going again, seeing how much a color-change can do for a room. I was, once again, seeing there was an end in sight and got myself in gear again.
Isn’t it interesting that different things will motivate us and get us back on track? It’s good to hear that you found your motivation again with your son’s kitchen. I’m sure he appreciates it!