I’ve heard from numerous people lately that, despite being type A personalities, they can’t seem to work up the motivation to get certain things done. It’s funny ‘cause I found myself in the same position. I’m highly motivated and it’s easy for me to create/connect to momentum. Then Safe-at-Home hit and BAM! I felt like I was spit out of a wringer and left in a pile to wrinkle, smell bad, and mold – all phases that I was quickly heading toward. Till it dawned on me, “WAIT! What the crap! This isn’t where I want to be!”

I see motivation as an energetic state – a driving force that keeps me moving in the direction of my desires. But, that’s certainly not where I was heading.

I once had a boss that used to say, “energy creates energy.” I have always believed and continue to practice this. The premise behind it is to GET MOVING! Just start! That’s all I needed to do. Yeah, right! Get moving how? At the time, there was no moving in the direction that I needed to go. No motivation! It was gone! Hiding somewhere in the vast unknown. Weird!

So how did I find it, you ask?

For me, it was always there. I believe we always have some form of motivation. You are either motivated to do something or motivated to NOT do something. In either case, you are motivated. I just needed to flip the move-forward switch on my momentum, and soon.

I started by getting clear on what motivation means to me. I know that motivation is built through moment-to-moment decisions and my degree of intentional participation in those moments. I also know that I need to take intentional and deliberate action to get it going. In this instance, my focus went to what had motivated me in the past and how I could recreate it.

There are various ways to get motivated. What works best for me is to do something that inspires me. First and foremost, I need to get the motivational energy flowing. Once that happens, I can then move into whatever I need to get done, I can transfer that energy to other things.

What oftentimes isn’t realized is that you spend more time procrastinating than you would if you did something fun/inspirational and then went back to the task at hand. Without this step, you wind up dusting houseplants, chasing insects, and/or cleaning crevices. In procrastination, you get stuck in a state of resistance that prevents you from doing anything. All of your time and energy gets sucked in to it, spinning you deeper into the wringer.

So, when I feel myself heading down that path, I find something that inspires me. Something that shifts me out of the funk and into new energy. Then, I’m full speed ahead!