Over the past couple weeks, it's been slow going on every project I'm working on. The novel isn't moving like it was a couple weeks ago, fixing the short story is taking far more time than I anticipated, and even exercising seems laborious. Work is dreary and draining. School is somewhat better, but not where I need to be. It's almost all just 'blah'.
Generally, when things like this occur it gets to the point where I start to feel resistance in anything I try to do. Ever try to lift something that shouldn't be that heavy, and yet it is? That's where I am.
My martial arts instructor taught me a trick that works well in times like this: Fake excitement.
My first reaction to this was a small amount of skepticism. Only a small amount. Master Park is an amazing person who was one of the catalysts for a dramatic turnaround in my life. So when he talks I listen, even if I'm not sure I believe what he's saying. When I follow the logic eventually I come to the conclusion he's right.
So how does one fake excitement when they don't feel it? It's as easy as it sounds. Approach a project and and decide to be excited about it. "Woo-hoo, I'm cleaning my house!" "I just can't wait to dig into this huge pile of work!"
It sounds cheesy but it works.
For example, over the weekend my to-do list was enormous. Instead of allowing myself to get overwhelmed, I decided to get excited. Not only did I get everything accomplished, I discovered something very interesting about the main character of my novel. Fake excitement when I ask struggling to make progress gave me a new internal conflict, and it's made me genuinely excited to get back to the keyboard.
Speaking of which, it's time to fake some excitement so I can drag myself to the gym.
No comments:
Post a Comment