more motivation

Ever since my very first basketball practice as a fourth grader, I have lived for game days. I loved traveling hours to play an opponent, or walking down the hallway after school for a home game. I loved getting to wear my uniform, and not having to worry about doing running at practice for the night. Most of all, I loved getting to look into the crowd to see my family. In particular, I loved getting to see and hear my grandma cheer on our team. She was a super fan for every single sport in our high school, and she never missed the chance to be at a game to provide motivation to everyone on the court.

None of us are the energizer bunny with all of the motivation and energy in the world. However, my grandma has taught me that sometimes the greatest motivation is to just being present. Every single day, we can practice more motivation by being present. We owe it to ourselves and others not to pull the “I’ll do it tomorrow” card over, and over again. Why should we continue choosing to just get through the day, when we could be choosing to have a breakthrough for the day?

I’ve caught myself lacking motivation more than a few times these past few weeks. I’ve had thoughts that I didn’t need to settle in to this “new normal”, because it would end soon. I’ve told myself that it was okay to not change I interact with people to virtual, because I’d be able to give hugs and talk in person soon. I’ve even been guilty of thinking that this was just a time of rest before going out to do the “real” stuff.

The reality of it is that it’s all “real” stuff. We can choose to watch Netflix for hours on end, or we can choose to volunteer in our communities in unique ways. Both are uses of time, and both are very real things we can find ourselves doing. The difference in the two, in my opinion, is motivation. Every day we are given time to either make the most of it, or make the least of it. If we get stuck thinking that what we do now is not really going to make a difference or be impactful, I’d dare to ask the question: When is it impactful then? If what we do is dependent on where we are, or who we are surrounded with, how rooted are we in our purpose? If we truly believe that we are leaders that can impact others, it shouldn’t matter if the event was cancelled, or that we can no longer be in person. If we are people with motivation in our purpose, a change in the method will never change the mission.

A day in quarantine is equally as valuable as a day out of it. Let’s choose to be present, have more motivation, and give today the value it deserves.

There’s more to motivation.

There’s more to it all.