Motivation isn’t some grand, glowing epiphany for me—it’s more like catching flecks of glitter in the wild mess of my life as a 30-something Millennial wife and mom. Glitter and PlayDoh are strictly banned at my house because I have a #destructivetoddler. Motivation, specifically intrinsic (aka. internal) motivation, mostly comes out of nowhere, and it’s often spontaneous and unexpected. Between finding time and energy to write, getting lost in way too many hours on my computer or iPhone, cuddling my cat Timon, chasing after my kids, and chugging orange pekoe tea to stay awake like it’s my full-time job, here’s how I tap into motivation.
“Wherever the music takes you, kitten.” —Sheldon Cooper
Swaying with the Ebb and Flow of Life
I don’t have a clear-set structure or system for finding motivation. More often than not, it’s “wherever the music takes [me].” In other words, it’s like letting the bongo music guide me wherever it wants. I don’t know why, but that scene from The Big Bang Theory always makes me laugh. I thrive on those brief moments that make me feel like I’ve got it together, even if just for a second, and they usually hit when I’m not stuck to a routine or checklist. Instead of following influencers’ advice to make lists and “do this, do that” for motivation, sometimes tossing out the plan and letting the moment guide me, like following a song’s rhythm, pushes me to do something surprising, like dusting off my blog after months of neglect. 🙈
Some might not see it my way, but those little, unexpected moments of randomness are totally a form of motivation for me, grounding me fast when I realize I’m giving my all as a wife and mom. To all the moms out there, #IYKYK.
Personal Growth is a Whole Mood
Working on yourself, whether that’s personal growth and development or another sector of your life, is a vibe of it’s own. I often listen to self-development podcasts or watch youtube videos about psychology, philosphy, etc. to learn more about the world and seek truth about what’s real and what’s not. There’s a lot of distractions these days, and I just want to understand things a little better each day. I like diving into some podcast I didn’t need but couldn’t resist. It keeps my mind happy and stimulated. Blogging on http://www.sereneluna.net, is where I pour out my thoughts and feelings. Every post, even if it resonates with just one reader who vibes with me, keeps me anchored and fuels me to write more. That’s motivation right there.
(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ FINAL THOUGHTS ♥
When the house gets quiet and Timon’s purring away without a care in the world, I ask myself: What keeps me going? Easy—I want to grow, keep love at the heart of it all, and make something that lasts, even if it’s making my family happy or publishing a blog post every now and then. Motivation isn’t a destination; it’s so many little things that give me a reason to keep going.
What motivates you? Join the conversation by leaving a comment below ↓ Maybe my blog post will motivate you to write something today. If you do answer the Writing Prompt, please tag me or let me know so I can read it! 🙂 I got the idea to respond to this Writing Prompt after reading Sajida’s response at https://mymindfulnessjourny.wordpress.com.
Thanks for stopping by! ♥
I love your vibe! I’m so behind on reading other people’s blog posts cz I’m often exhausted from taking care of my new baby. I’m glad I motivated you to write about motivation 😉 love your vibe. I felt like I was talking to a friend 🤗 please write more often so I can read your stuff ❤️
Thank you so much, Sajida! 🙂 I stumbled upon your blog post in the WordPress reader today, and thought it would be fun to respond to the daily prompt. I’ve never actually done one of these before! I can relate to how hard it is to find time to blog when you’ve got little kids, especially babies. How old is your baby?
I’m glad you did so! It allowed us to connect. My baby is 4 months old. I’ve written blogs about my journey there from when my water broke to his NICU journey. He is 4 months old now. I also have a 10-year-old son and he gives me a run for my money in other ways, like always wanting more toys and always needing to be entertained. And as much as he is helpful with his baby brother, he is equally jealous. How many kids do you have?
Wow! Busy mama! I remember reading a few of your posts a while ago, but I couldn’t remember how long ago it was. I’m sorry that your son was in NICU and I’m glad he’s healthy and well now. 4 months already – wow!
I’ve got a 4-year old son and an almost 9-year old daughter, so I can relate! My daughter also gets jealous of my son. She gave some of her toys to him, and then she said, “Okay, so I gave him all of my Paw Patrol toys. So what new toy are you going to buy me because I was nice to him?” Me: 🤦♀️
Other times my daughter gets upset when we try to donate some of her old toys that both she and my toddler son don’t play with anymore. 😓 Parenting is hard sometimes.
Thanks! Omg, that is so funny, and I can relate to it 100%. My 10-year-old is still attached to his toys, although he rarely plays with them anymore, and he doesn’t do anything asked of him for free. But he has his moments of kindness and empathy. I wish I could tell you it gets easier but we are both in for a shock with the teenage years. Motherhood is beautiful and messy, amirite?
You’re totally right about that. I’ve been warned about the teenage years. I’m especially worried about my daughter because she’s quite sassy with an attitude. I’m taking things one day at a time, and will deal with teenage years when we get there. Every year they get older brings new challenges.
Parenting is kinda the same thing. I don’t know what I’m doing since I’ve never done this parenting thing before, but I’m doing it.
One item I see missing in all this is ” husband”
If you’d like to read an article about this, I wrote one for Medium a few years ago (pinned article) I felt that it was more appropriate for Medium rather than WordPress.
For me, motivation is like nitrous boosting a good car: a good car already runs really well, and with a properly-fitted engine and good nitrous oxide, you’ll get superior performance for brief periods of time. However, nitrous oxide on an engine that’s shut off won’t mean a whole lot. Similarly, when it comes to motivation, there must be something underlying that in order to make it click.
Like you, I found that I can’t really count on motivation, since moments like the ones you describe are similarly rare for me, but the flipside is when it hits, it hits hard. Every other day, however, I count on consistency: for instance, 9 of 10 days, I don’t feel motivated to lift weights. I make myself lift. When things normally run well, and you throw in a little motivation, that’s when the magic happens.
That’s a good analogy (metaphor? I always confuse those two) and I totally agree with you. I try to do my best every day, like working out, reading, and doing chores, even when I’m not super excited about it. It’s like building a strong habit, and having a routine that I can stick with that keeps me going. Then, on those “special” days when I feel really motivated, it’s like getting a big burst of energy that makes everything I do easier and more fun. So I get that. Days I have tons of motivation are far and few in between. Usually I just end up brute forcing it when I feel overwhelmed (which is unfortunately, often).
Thanks for reading and commenting. I saw your Twitter comment and figured that it would be easier to reply here. 🙂
Analogy is correct. WordPress comments have the advantage of no character limits, so we can properly convey everything. The big plus about routines is that they’re a force of habit, and once established, we do them without much thought. It reminds me of a motivator I heard during the pandemic days: “when times get tough, start your day by making your bed”. The mindset, if I’m not remembering wrong, was that by taking back one part of your day and doing that one thing, you’re reminding yourself there are things you can control, and this lays down the groundwork for taking control of more things and making good habits stick 🙂
I know what you mean, Blogging is such a great way to share what’s on your mind and actually connect with others unlike social media where it feels like you’re just scrolling mindlessly.
It really is, which is why I keep coming back to it 🙂 I kinda got frustrated with Twitter/X because I still get no engagement on there despite having their “premium” subscription. I only got the subscription because there was a great sale last year. That’s how they get you.
Will I be renewing it? Probably not. Most of the perks are useless. However, I like Grok for grammar checks/suggestions and find it easy to use, but I’ve gotten flack from some ppl who hate AI in general. My only option is to stay subscribed, so I’m on the fence about what to do in November. I don’t use Chat GPT or Grammarly.
I stopped using X after they said they were using content to train their AI with no proper option to opt out. I think it’s fine if people want to use AI, it just bugs me when our content is used to train it even though we get zero compensation for it. I use ChatGPT sometimes, it’s pretty helpful.
I forgot about that. Not surprised that they are using our content and data to train their AI. Social media sites (even FB and TikTok) tend to steal data, which bugs me.
What I really don’t like about X is having to pay for their service, especially when there’s free alternatives like ChatGPT (unless that has changed). I also don’t like being stuck with the blue checkmark verification on X, and there’s no way to hide it. They make it very hard to cancel my subscription but I don’t plan on renewing mine in November.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure literally every SM platform has been stealing data but I think this was just much more obviously done. Absolutely, lots of AI options are free so it doesn’t make sense to have to pay for them.