Blog Post 051917
May 19, 2017
The Everyday Grind
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Motivation is a lot like hunger. You either want to stuff your face with whatever food is closest to you, or you don't. You can force yourself to eat, but the result is often times less than ideal. Plus eating should be fun, right?
Any number of things can take your hunger away, just suck the motivation and energy right out of you. Work, school, people in general, lol, but being consistent, day after day, takes serious commitment and it is probably the hardest thing to do (for most). I might be over generalizing here but I think all of us, at some point have taken on a task, a hobby, an interest or maybe even a serious paying job. But somewhere down the line, after the initial inertia of fun, enthusiastic energy, the hunger is not there. The everyday grind of being consistent got too hard, too costly or just too boring. Then I stumbled upon the Apes’ last blog post, “How to find motivation” which actually inspired these thoughts. If you’re not familiar with them, please, by all means get acquainted. You can read their article here, and visit their site at apeisdapper.com. Anyways, back to human life…
So here I find myself in front of a computer screen asking the one question many men (and women, relax) have asked for millions of years, ok ok, hundreds.... How do you get your mojo back?
Well, there's no right answer. How do you make yourself hungry? Here are 3 ways I try to answer that question.
Might come off as a cliche but remember why you started in the first place. Try and remember the inspiration that gave you that spark. Go over what you have accomplished, the progress, the failures and how you got over them; and all the ideas that are just waiting to come to life. Most importantly, remember how it felt in the beginning.
Surround yourself with like minded people. Join a community. You know the saying, “two heads are better than one” ? well, there might be some truth to that. Sometimes being able to talk about whatever topic with someone else is all you need to spark the flame again. The back and forth conversation most times leads to new ideas about the same topic, unique to the individuals engaged in the conversation.
Re-evaluate the situation. When you find yourself taking a step back and looking at the whole picture, it’s imperative to be completely honest with yourself. Do I want to continue doing this? Do I still WANT this? For the most part, we already know the answer, but saying it aloud has a different effect on our psyche. This should be a yes or no answer. Reasons why come later and are irrelevant when trying to figure out whether to keep calm and carry on or simply move on.
I'm sure there are a million other ways to get your groove back, but I think these are universal no matter where you are in accomplishing that goal. Consistency is key to success.
Rarely do these not go hand in hand. Alex Perez - TheBespokeJournal