I did not want to get up today when my alarm went off at the (not-so) early time of 7 AM. Every excuse about how tired I felt and how comfy my bed was raced through my head as I laid there next to my sleeping husband. Ugh… the realization that motivation only carries us so far smacked me in the right in the sleepy face. For the past 3 days I've been unstoppable; I’ve written 2 blog posts, spent several hours hand-lettering, pre-planned a bunch of Instagram posts, and setup my email campaigns, I mean I was on a roll. I was so motivated to work on that thing I’d wanted to do for 10 long years (start my blog), I thought, "no way in HELL was this train going to stop, I am rollin’ baby!"
Queue the sound of screeching breaks.
"This is going to be hard,” was the next thought that raced through my head as I laid in my warm bed.
Thats the thing about doing something worth while, it take a lot of hard work and dedication. Motivation will only carry us so far before she leaves us stranded in the middle of a scorching desert with no food or water miles away from civilization. Once she’s gone, the only thing left to do, is work like hell.
She’ll gladly help you start a project, she’ll tell you how easy it will be, fill your mind with loads of inspiration, and convince you that this time, you are going to make it! You are finally going to do the thing you’ve always wanted to…
Wait… what? Where’s motivation!? She left...ALREADY!? It’s only been 3 days… I didn’t even get to finish my pep talk to myself…shit.
She’s gone. Like a black cat disappearing into the dark of the night. I take a deep breathe and let out a heavy sigh that feels eerily familiar, like I’ve been here before. Oh wait, I have. This vicious cycle has an all too familiar presence in my life. It goes something like this: motivation kicks me in the rear, I get excited and inspired, I work like hell on the thing for a few days, maybe a week, and then it gets hard, motivation is gone, and so am I.
Insert heavy sigh...
I’m slowly learning you cannot rely purely on motivation to get your meaningful work done. The only way to create meaningful things is to show up and do the work, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Rain, shine, holiday, sick, vacation, whatever the excuse might be, you have to show up and do the work daily. Even if you only have 5-10 minutes, sit down and do it; write/make/draw/sing/paint, whatever the thing is that makes your heart feel alive, do that thing every single day. Day after day, week after week, before you know it, you’ll have a huge body of work for all to see, you’ll launch that blog, you’ll perfect that chorus, you’ll finish the painting. All you have to do is work at it a little bit every day...because if you only create when you are motivated, you won't create much at all.