Five For....Pushing Through De-motivation

(This article was originally published on one of my other blogs- Joyful Jabber)

It has been quite a while since I have written on any of my blogs. There was a house-move, a trip to the States and various other real-life 'stuff' that kept me from one of my favourite past-times (writing). So, a few days ago, I thought....that's it...let's get back to it. I felt good, things were calming down around here and the timing seemed right. I went to sleep feeling good!

Day 2- I wake up eager to get started writing…then it hits. That’s right, I can’t think of a single interesting thing to write about. I search the net for things that might catch my attention. Nothing. I put it up on Facebook…Come on friends, who’s got a good idea I can write about? A couple of light-hearted answers, but still….nothing. Sigh. I finally give up and go to bed…tomorrow is another day. (Right?)

Day 3- We have a name for this, folks. It’s called WRITER’S BLOCK and I have it bad! I am filled with guilt and self-doubt. Stacy is counting on me. I am counting on me. What will happen to our newborn baby-blog if I can’t even feed it? Wrapping it up and keeping it warm under wraps really won’t help. It needs to be nurtured so it can grow and bloom into something beautiful. Sigh…WHAT CAN I WRITE ABOUT??? You guessed it, not even a little sliver of inspiration to be found anywhere. I go to bed dejected…again.

Day 4- I am still uninspired but I go about my daily routines. Email…check, Facebook…check, various favourite sites…check. This is when I find it. The perfect inspiration and words of encouragement that I need. And you know, I really am a firm believer that God puts things in our path just when we need them. Only two days ago, I came across a blog by a guy who makes total sense to me. His name is Tim Ferris and if you’re interested, he has a very intriguing book called The 4- Hour Workweek which is going on my to-read list. Anyway, I digress. On his site, I find this article: The Big Question: Are You Better Than Yesterday? It is a guest post from Chad Fowler, CTO of InfoEther, Inc.

There is one section in this article that hits me like a tonne of bricks. The key question that one of his friends asks him: “Was today better than yesterday?” This is regarding any particular (but especially, big) goal that you might be working on. I am sure that many of you can relate to the cycle we fall into so easily- the goal seems too unattainable, or we don’t see enough progress, so we get discouraged and then procrastinate. This makes us even more discouraged so we procrastinate some more, and…well…you get the idea. The end result is that the goal is further and further out of reach and eventually, we probably give up.

Instead, take a step back and see if you have made ANY progress towards your goal at all. If, for today, you can say that you have made even the tiniest movement towards it, that is a success! Keep asking yourself this question every day and if the answer is YES, soon you’ll be so much closer to your goal than you even realized and the journey to getting there will be much less painful.

I wasn’t exactly in danger of giving up on this project before we even got started, but I certainly was in the discouraged/procrastinating category already. (It happens so fast!) But this article was just what I needed. So I have decided to make this my mantra. I will print it out and post it in my office- I will put it on the wallpaper of my mobile phone…I’ll tell all my friends. So that when I get into this position again, (and you can bet I will) I can look in those places or turn to them and ask- Am I Better Than Yesterday?

I have just written this post, so today, I can say, yes, I am better than yesterday.

And that…is definitely enough.