Hello, lovely!
Raise your hand if you’ve ever set out on a goal or a task all gung-ho and ready to take on the world, only to find yourself losing steam several times in the process?
Well you’re in good company!! We are all guilty of this (for me it’s saying “Diet starts Monday!” only to be eating ice cream by Wednesday night. *hangs head in shame*).
So grab a coffee, pull up a chair and keep reading to find out how you can refocus yourself and help see the bigger picture. After all, we’re busy babes and we need to get shit done!
It’s all about perspective…
On the first day of Microeconomics in my first semester of university, one of the first things out of my professor’s mouth was: “What are you doing here?”.
Umm, what?? What did he mean? Was he asking why were we in this class? What program were we in? Was he asking if we were in the right place?
What he was looking for was a deeper insight into why we were really there, to help us see the big picture of what we were trying to accomplish Were we fulfilling our parents’ wishes by being in university? Earning a degree in order to further our future careers or increase earning potential? Perhaps it was to further our education in order to make us more well-rounded individuals?
This question allows us to reflect on our goals but also to realize our values. Once we establish why we’re here and doing what we’re doing, it allows us to see what’s important to us.
Why did you set this goal? Are you doing it for family? Financial stability? Personal health? Whatever your reason and value, it’s enough to have made you start on this goal in the first place, right? You need to remind yourself of this constantly!
We all have tasks we put off over and over or would simply rather not do at all. It’s so easy to ditch that workout that you know is going to be gruelling or to skip reading that 37-page chapter in your psychology textbook in place of a Netflix marathon. But there is a reason you set this goal, so get to it!
By asking myself “What am I doing here?” on a regular basis, I’ve found that it helps me gain a lot of perspective into the job at hand. While maybe the task is not fun in the moment, it’s all about the bigger picture of what I’m trying to accomplish.
Turn off “Auto-Pilot”…
You all know what I mean here: the daily grind. The same ol’, same ol’. The repetitiveness of our day to day lives that leave us at the end of the day sometimes asking “What did I even do today?!”.
For many of us, we carry out our days in a zombie-like trance, going through the motions with little thought or emotion behind them. Wake up, go to work, eat lunch, work more, leave work, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed. Sure, that’s a rather basic look at a day but you get my point. For a lot of us there often isn’t a lot of meaning in what we do in our workday aside from punching a clock to earn a pay check. As someone who likes routine, it was hard for me to identify that I was growing increasingly more passive in my own life and becoming less and less motivated to go out and do things that I enjoyed. I hated my job and I had constant anxiety about my future. It was so draining on my energy and I just got into this rut of thinking that “one day” things would get better. One day I’d magically start to enjoy my job, one day I’d wake up and have all the energy to meal prep, eat healthy and go to the gym on a regular basis, one day I’d look into a different career…
Obviously this is no way to live. I woke the hell up and realized that feeling like this most of the time is simply not OK and it was time to do something about it.
We need to stop waiting for things and changes to just happen. We need to grab life by the proverbial balls and start being the catalyst for changes in our lives. We need to take control, to stop feeling like hamsters running on a wheel.
So again, ask yourself “What am I doing here?”. Are you happy with your answer? If the answer is no – change it!
If you can dream it, you can do it…
Going back to my ever-wisdomous economics professor, he told us this quote: “If you don’t build your dream someone will hire you to build theirs” – Tony Gaskins
That, my friends, is pure motivational GOLD!!!
I meant just think about it! As I mentioned above, are we just punching the clock and helping someone else get rich? I’d rather reap the benefits of my hard work for myself instead of someone else, thank you very much!
We dream of things for so many different reasons but they almost always involve a change of some sort followed by some degree of effort. We have dream jobs, dream vacations, dream homes, dream bodies, etc. These are all things that we desire but would often require major change or sacrifice to achieve. They also involve a major reward, usually in the form of health, wealth or happiness. My point is, it’s a dream for a reason, so don’t give up chasing it!
For me, my dream is still broad – I want to love what I do for a living and I want to feel overall satisfaction with my life. I still don’t know exactly what I want to do after school (and you can read about why this is ok). What I do know is what I don’t want to do after school, and that is to be stuck in a career I hate, feeling lacklustre all the time and only living for the weekends.
So set a goal, dream a dream. Ask yourself why you want to achieve it. Remind yourself over and over that this means something to you and that your life will be better upon achieving it. Then go ahead and crush that dream Like. A. Boss!
I’d love to hear about things you do to stay motivated so we can all learn from each other and share our ideas! Please comment below to share 🙂
Thanks for reading,
Kortny with a K ♥
