Living My Best Life

Wow. That sounds like a line from Oprah. I don’t feel like I’ve been living my best life lately. Actually rarely if ever would I say I’m at my best (who does?), but recently I’ve just been feeling very unsatisfied in many areas of my life. I’m a bit of a roller coaster lately. I do love my life and am very grateful for so many wonderful people and experiences. Just the other day I was on a bit of a high but how quickly it can change. I think the one big thing I’m lacking in my life these days is motivation. I feel unmotivated and often downright lazy. In the grand scheme of things I’ve had a very easy life. This is hard to admit but I think I feel a sense of entitlement for things to be easy for me and when they’re not I have a hard time putting in the work to make things work. This isn’t true for all areas of my life, but definitely for some.

I do think discipline is a big part of it. Putting in the hard work, regardless of motivation or how I feel and hopefully through that eventually transforming into the kind of person who wants to do those things. There are so many areas of my life this applies to but one that I’ve been thinking about lately (that admittedly doesn’t have much depth, but is a reality) is that I’ve never loved cooking. I secretly have a desire to make wholesome, home-made meals for my family. I believe in it, but I suck at it. I actually think I could enjoy cooking and obviously my family needs to eat, I just have a hard time getting off my butt and putting the effort in to be less than mediocre because it’s not something that comes naturally to me. When I do it feels great, but it’s usually short-lived. If I wait around to get the motivation I could be waiting forever. Where does motivation come from? And where can I get some?

I don’t think the opposite of laziness is busyness. I have no desire to be a busy person. I think that’s an issue in our society. We take on too much, running from one place to another, enrolling our kids in every program under the sun. We have the most convenient lives of any society and yet the least amount of time for each other. It irks me when people complain about being busy when it’s often just about the choices they are making. I do know some people thrive on being busy and can be relational in the midst of it. Partly I think I just strive for perfection and feel unsatisfied if I’m not there. I can forgive myself for having a cluttered house and celebrate the things I am doing well. But I can also strive to be better and be happy with the effort I am putting into life. That’s where I need to get to. Remember this jingle. “Don’t just think about it, do it, do it, do it”....



Is that the answer? Think less and get off my butt? Probably! If you’ve conquered lack of motivation please let me know how the heck you did it! End of my random blabbering....for now! :)