Have a bad day
I think if we could measure how much effort, as a society, we put into motivating ourselves, we’d be very surprised!
It seems like a lot of content out there today talks about motivation, how to be happier, how to keep going when you can’t anymore. While that’s all important, sometimes it can tire us out even more.
We’ve all been there. And this is how I found the surprising but refreshing advice from Marie Forleo.
Marie says to give yourself one or two days to just have a bad day.
If you’re in a slump, be in it. Instead of spending all your energy trying to get out of it.
They key is it set yourself a specific time frame. 1 or 2 days.
Give yourself permission to wallow, have a bit of self pity, be angry. Whatever it is. But after the time frame, you stop and you pick yourself up.
[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1acrUAxFVaw&index=26&list=PL10842720BBC66A6E” theme=”light”]
Sometimes all this positive content gives us the impression that we should be trying to be happy all the time. That we should avoid the negative feelings – because then we’re being just that – negative.
When really that’s not realistic. That’s not life (a great read on this idea is The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking
, it’s not as cynical as it sounds).Â
The good comes with bad. There’s nothing wrong with embracing the bad.
So give yourself permission to have the bad day.
Related Content: No Motivation? Here’s Why & How To Fix It
Read/Learn
Learning from others is a saviour when you’re feeling lost. Hence the Marie Forleo video!
There’s so much content out there to help us. We can learn from so many other people.
Here are some great reads I’ve found useful when I’ve had to pull myself out of my bad day
A great blog to read, with solid, honest advice is Mark Manson (the author of the Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck).
Otherwise, the best place for video content is Marie Forleo. She answers all the best questions on her YouTube channel. Short, sharp, to the point (and really funny as well).
Some of my favourite to go back on are
Just do it anyways
Hands up if you wait for inspiration! Or maybe motivation!
Or you sit and think if I just did this course and learnt a bit more…
Then read this post by Mark Manson. Here he talks about the “do something” principle.
So say you’ve had your one or two bad days and it’s time to get your ass moving. Well, chances are after those two days you’re not going to feel a wave of inspiration. In fact you might feel the opposite.
But do it anyways. Write the post. Instead of working out for 30 mins, just work out for 15.
Just do something – action is what creates inspiration and motivation. Now you’ve had time to wallow, it’s time to get moving.
Think of where you’ve come from – not where you’re going
How often do you think about where you want to be?
How much effort do you spending thinking about the person you’ll be when you’ve achieved something?
Me too.
Until I heard the best advice – to look back on where you’ve come from and stop looking at where you want to go all the time.
When we focus too much on where we want to go, we see the gap between then and now.
That puts us down. Stresses us out. And makes us feel like we’re treading water.
So how far have you come? Reflect on where you’ve been and what you’ve had to do to get here.
I’m sure you’ll find a lot to be proud of.
