Ah, the motivation to get started on something. Sometimes, that is the hardest part of the activity. The example for me where this applies in spades is the morning run.
I love running. Sure, you get tired and sweaty and just want to walk at times and something or another might start hurting, but all that… I have no problem with; all that is fun. AND… I feel great afterwards: more than the endorphins, it’s feeling fit – maybe they’re the same thing. I prepend that to a workday, and I walk into the office feeling like a bad-ass, having proactively done something to better myself, feeling alive.
If I could just open my eyes and find myself running (sleep-running?), I’d keep running. While it’s effort, it’s ironically not the hardest. So what’s been coming between me and giving myself a radiantly awesome start to every day after turning off the alarm clock?
- Not rolling back into bed.
- Getting my feet to touch the floor.
- Getting my butt off the bed.
- Not checking Facebook, or email, or the news, on the laptop.
- Getting running clothes on. Then shoes.
Hmm. It starts with feet and ends with getting them dressed: out of bed and into shoes.
Maybe… just maybe… if I put my running shoes next to my bed at night, I can slip into them in the morning and jump-start the whole process (’cause I’m not gonna roll back into bed with my shoes on).
MAYBE… just maybe… if I put the alarm clock ON the shoes next to my bed at night, I’ll be holding my shoes, facilitating the shoe-to-foot process.
Wow, this post was going to be about how showing up is the hardest part (the problem/challenge/opportunity), and just by going through that little exercise of asking myself, “What is coming between me and…” while writing it out in detail do I have something I can look over and subsequently fall into coming up with a potential solution, from the point of view of more easily showing up. I’m not sure if it’ll work, but at least I have a plan I can try out.
What is something you want to do or be? Ask yourself, “What is coming between me and…” this thing. Write it out. Each blocker. Each annoying or silly or serious blocker between you and this thing you’re after. Now, look over this list.
What can you do to more easily just… show up?