Getting Motivated

Motivation comes in many forms. Just a minute ago, my 15 year old tromped up the stairs demanding to know the location of the vacuum cleaner. Figuring something had spilled, she would never volunteer to vacuum otherwise, I ask what happened. Turns out, there's a family of spiders living in a large web under her bed. Nothing says its time to clean up like a big old spider or two under the bed!

Speaking of motivation, I finally got motivated to do the annual clean out the closet in preparation for summer routine with the boys. It took almost a whole week but the clothes for back to school are folded and waiting in the top of the closet, the clothes that no longer fit or won't fit in September have gone to the thrift store, and the summer clothes are in easy reach. Its rewarding when its over but I truly hate doing this job. So if you haven't done it already, get going. You'll feel so much happier when it's finally done.

Then there can be the problem of staying motivated. Some weeks I have trouble staying motivated to bake the bread we need to get through the week, or to plan ahead so the beans I need for a given recipe are ready when I need them or to cook dinner from scratch. Sometimes I don't want to do the laundry, actually a lot of times I don't want to do the laundry, or any one of a million other tasks of my daily life. So how do I stay motivated?

The answer is sometimes I don't but I usually regret it. It's a lot like eating a rich dessert when you're already full. It tastes great but you live with the guilt and the sick stomach for hours. Over the years I've learned, doing one laundry a day will keep me from spending an entire day in the laundry room, baking six loaves of bread at a time will give me a weeks worth of bread, making 4 dozen muffins will give me about 3-4 days worth of breakfasts and snacks, cooking dinner from scratch keeps hard earned money in our bank account...

You get the idea. Doing what I need to do, when it needs to be done is a lot like being granted parole. When its finished, I'm free to do what I want to do.

So now that my blogging commitment is over for the day, I'm going to knit!