Not Feelin’ It? Do It Anyway!
Posted by LisaMurray on January 8, 2010
If we wait until we feel motivated to work on our dream, chances are our dream will remain just that, a dream. I remember when I was in my late teens, I had the opportunity to live with my dad in his condo a few miles from where I grew up. (My parents divorced when I was 9 and I lived with my mother.) My father was very active – he played basketball on a league, he biked 20+ miles every week, he regularly went on long hikes, and he went running every day. I envied his energy level and commitment to being active. I started going on 13-mile bike rides with him and although it kicked my butt, I really enjoyed it! I’m not one of those people who dislikes physical activity. I love it!! My problem is that I don’t stick with it and then “starting over” feels like crap. I let things get in the way and I tell myself that I’ll do my workout “tomorrow” until a month (or two or three) has gone by and next thing I know, I’m completely out of shape again. And then starting over again becomes an uncomfortable reality that I avoid until I can’t stand how I feel anymore and so I get out there and get active again. Every time I wonder why I gave it up in the first place because it feels so good! I tell myself I will never let ANYTHING stand in the way between me and my exercise ever again – but then (like clockwork) the inevitable “thing” comes along and messes up my schedule (I get a cold, I go out of town for work, I have friends in town, etc.) and I am unable to get out there and then I get discouraged, and so the cycle continues.
One day I was talking with my dad about this and I said, “I’m not like you, I have to push myself to go running. But once I’m out there, I’m okay.” What he said completely spun my world around. He told me that although he has been active since he was a teenager, ran in 5 & 10ks, biked for miles miles, jogged every day, and was in tip top shape, every single time he went out to start his exercise he had to overcome a feeling of not wanting to do it. WHAT? I couldn’t believe it. I said, “You mean, just every now and then, like when you haven’t been out in a while, or when you were sick or injured for a while, right?” and he responded with “No, EVERY time.” He went on, “It amazes me how it never gets easier. After all these years you would think my body would just know that by exercising I will feel great but instead I am met with a feeling of resistance every single time!” I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing. So the difference between myself and the people I envy who exercise every day and are in great shape isn’t some genetic thing that they have and I don’t, but rather, it’s a CHOICE that they make, each and every day, to OVERCOME that voice that tells them NOT to do something, to settle and to stay “comfortable”. So if I wait for that resistance to go away, I will be waiting forever because even people (like my dad) who workout every single day experience that resistance! The trick is to push past it and not let is control my day.
Dreams are the same way. The passion and excitement for our dream rises and falls. Life has a way of taking the wind out of our sails at times. Maybe we want to do something that helps people but then we get sick of people and so we think maybe our dream isn’t what we want after all! Or, we may want to be a writer and then we hear some negative feedback and we think all of our potential readers may have the same type of negative feedback so we decide we don’t want to be a writer anymore.
The bottom line: We won’t always feel excited about our dream.
Nobody ever tells you about the mundane aspects of “living the dream” because well, let’s face it, we don’t want to hear about it!! We are working in jobs that make us unhappy and the excitement we get when we think about our dream is like oxygen to a dying man!! The last thing we want is a cup of “reality” thrown in, taking away our hope of a better life, our reason for getting out of bed in the morning. But I’m telling you this because I think a lot of us give up on our dreams once “the honeymoon is over” and we are just faced with the day-to-day aspects of it all because we initially associate our dream with the feeling of “excitement” and when we wake up one day and that excitement has turned to just another day, we get discouraged and fall back into old behaviors and give up on our dream. Don’t get me wrong, the day-to-day aspects don’t have to be boring, we can make any and every part of our lives as fun as we want them to be, but I’m just saying, there are parts to all life that are just … well, mundane! But don’t let the mundane, repetitious, or boring parts of your dream discourage you from working at it each and every day. Don’t listen to that voice that tells you it’s not worth it. Don’t listen to that feeling that tells you that it’ll never happen and what’s the use? Every day that you put energy into your dream, even if it’s not the big, sweeping progress that you can Tweet about and receive all kinds of “ooohs” and “aaahs” for, but instead maybe you just mailed a letter you were supposed to mail, or looked something up on the Internet that you’ve been putting off, or made that phone call you’ve been avoiding, whatever! No matter how “small” the action, any and all action is another chuck of wood that you have cut out of that big wall that stands between you and your dream and so… you have made progress!! And even if you make no measurable external progress, the reason you must face that feeling and push past it is to prove to yourself that YOU (not your schedule, your job, your family/friends, etc.) but YOU are in control of your destiny!! Every time that you face that resistance and you tell it to sit the EFF down – you take the control back, and you are stronger and happier for it!
The people who achieve success are the ones who put energy into their dreams every day – no matter how they’re feeling or what’s going on around them. They put their happiness FIRST. They put their mask on before they assist others. They don’t let the “boring” parts of their dream discourage them because they know that ultimately, for them, it’s about living the life that they chose to live because even the most boring day of living their dream is one thousand times better than the most exciting day of not living their dream. If you are waiting for everything to “feel right”, you are wasting valuable time. NOW is the time. NOW is all we have. Go out there and get em tiger! EACH AND EVERY DAY… no matter what!
Love ya Miley!
