Finding Motivation in Despair

So today’s post is going to be shorter than normal. It’s been a rough week or so and that’s something I wanted to talk about: finding motivation when life gets in the way.

It can be really hard, I know.

When life is falling down around you or your anxiety is having a field day or you’d rather crawl under your comforter and hide than do literally anything, but you still somehow have to get out of bed, get dressed, and write the thing.

It’s impossible. It’s grinding. It feels like there’s a barbell sitting on your chest and you’ve got to lift it off.

I’m going to start in a counterintuitive way: start by giving yourself grace. It’s okay to stay in bed for a day, if that’s what you’ve got to do, or miss posting to your blog or go dark on social media for a couple days. Whatever you’ve got to do to re-center yourself.

Be kind to yourself in the same way that you’d be kind to your best friend. 

Just don’t let yourself get lost in the despair. I totally get the impulse, how easy it would be to just sink under that dark swell of existential dread. How awful everything seems and the bone deep desire to just write off the world, to retreat, to give up, to flee.

The first thing you need to do is find your inspiration. What is it that drives you? What is it that pulses in the beat of your heart? What words or mantra or cause can you find that will fill you back up when life drained you? 

Word by word, drop by drop, until you’ve re-energized yourself and you feel strong enough to fight back.

But even just a tiny kernel of hope in the darkness, can be enough to motivate you. You’re sharing your expertise with the world, a part of your story, of the things that make you who you are. That’s what writing is. So the act of writing itself can help motivate you. You can write yourself back to a better headspace. In the infamous words of one of my favorite musicals, write your way out. Write your way out of the despair and the darkness. Write your way back to a place of stability and motivation.

So, that’s my very short two sense.

Let’s write our way back to determination and grit. I’ll be right there with you, doing the same. Or at least trying to do it.

Disclosure: Any links in this post may be affiliate links. That means, if you click them and buy the recommended product, I make a small commission. It also means that you’re contributing to my vacation fund. Thank you in advance!

And as always…My inbox is always open for suggestions about future topics.