Motivation (or lack thereof)…

Do you ever have one of those days where you’re just not feeling it? It’s hard to get out of bed, you couldn’t care less about what your hair/make-up/face/clothes look like? You get to work and you sit there, listless and wanton. Your email goes “boop, boop, boop” and you just stare at it, hoping it will go away? Then you realize that when you go home you still have to RUN because you’ve committed to this crazy streaking thing…

Yea, that was my Monday. (I’m writing this post today because clearly I didn’t get to in on Monday)

This also wasn’t just a case of the “Mondays” either. I’m talking PURE, unmotivated mess. I’ve just been going and going and going and going for the past month or so and in that moment (when I woke up on Monday, that is) I realized there was NO end in sight. Work is absolutely bananas (and will be until at least September), we’re moving in about 3 weeks, I have a wedding that I’m in (WHOOT, ALMOST THERE GUYS!) I have a Zumba event coming up (I’ve already gone on about it to you, but click HERE for more info, it will be RADDDDD!) and on top of that, I will be selling my treats for the first time at said event, so I have to plan that out and bake them in the middle of the move and make them pretty AND delish AND, AND, AND, AND…

*takes deep breath*

So Monday morning, staring at the ceiling seemed much more appealing than getting up and facing the day. Luckily for me, Molly doesn’t care about how I’m feeling and she came BOUNDING into the room, jumped on the bed and forced me to get up and take her out (Hubs was in the shower). So I walk out, blinking my bleary eyes and stand in the sun while Molly does her biz.

Got to work, coffeed up (that’s a word, I swear) and went about my day. Not going to lie, it was a tough day. Since work is so busy, it forced me to keep going, but it was tough nonetheless.

Flash forward to sitting on the 401 in traffic: “Should I run today? Should I not? I don’t really want to. Besides, I’m tired and it was a long day. UGH I know I should, but I don’t want to” and on and on and on.

Luckily, I didn’t have to make dinner because we went over to the in-laws for dinner. Then, we had to go pick up some patio stones for the new place that we bought from a lovely couple on Kijiji (WIN!) As we were driving back home, Molly in tow, I thought to myself: JUST GO.

I would be lying if I told you I went for my run…I didn’t. In this case, I really couldn’t muster up the energy to go. HOWEVER, hubby and I DID take Molly for a really nice, long walk. It was wonderful.

When I got home, I settled down and started to work and ACTUALLY got work done. I actually HAD motivation to do it too. Since I did that, I actually took some stress off myself. After that, I did come choreography for the upcoming event. After that, I did some dishes! HAHA okay, that last part is a lie, I didn’t do dishes 😛

So what is the point of all this, you may ask?

When you’re feeling unmotivated, it may be because you are feeling overwhelmed. Life as a grown up is chaotic and the pace, stress & to do list is never ending. When you look at the days ahead, it can look like too much and you wonder how on earth ANY of it will get done in time.

When you’re in this moment, do the following:

Breath.
Make a list of what you MUST get done that day**
Where possible, ask for HELP (Hubby made lunches for us & gave me hugs)
Go for a walk – I know this seems counter productive since you’re low on time, but getting out into the fresh air for even 10 mins can get the blood flowing and the mind settled
Breath again
Tackle ONE item on your list at a time – when you look at the whole list, the stress will come back and panic will arise
When you are done that item CROSS IT OFF YOUR LIST – this is the BEST feeling ever
Breath again.
Start on your next task
Any time you start to feel overwhelmed or stressed out, BREATH, get up, walk around and drink some water or tea

**At any given time, I actually have 2 or 3 lists. One that is a MUST DO for the day, and the other 2 are things that are on going.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not the most organized person in the world (far from it). HOWEVER, when it comes to managing my stress level, I find this really helps a lot!

What do you do to keep yourself in check?