Friday Feature: Successfully Maintaining Momentum

This has been one of those weeks where I've had a hard time maintaining momentum. I've either hit the ground running, then run out of steam midway through the day or drug my feet getting started until the morning was half over, unmotivated to get started on even the tasks I set for myself because I wanted to to them. To make matters worse, I've spent an inordinate amount of time on activities that neither enrich my life nor shorten my to-do list.

I get it. I do. Not every week will be stellar, especially during the summer when I'm in vacation mentality. Besides, I learned a long time ago that my energy balance is a lot like a toddler's preferred diet -- all junky and non-nutritious one day and filled with what's good for me the next. As long as the balance is okay, it's probably healthy overall.

Unfortunately, that awareness doesn't do much to reduce my frustration with my own inertia. Consequently, I waste a lot of energy in pointless self-chastisement instead of just letting what is be.

Despite the fact that I'm more social scientist than hard scientist, I found this paragraph in Success magazine's article on maintaining momentum fascinating -- or at least more helpful than the loop of "I Can't Get Started with You" that was running incessantly through my head:

In chemistry, you need a big burst of initial energy to start a chemical reaction. This explosion of energy is called activation energy. What does it have to do with your personal goals? Everything.

Activation energy. So that's what was missing. Gotta get me some of that.

Meanwhile, the article shared four simple concepts (at least one of which I was already doing) that would help reduce my frustration while I struggled to establish momentum, let alone maintain it. Arguably, these could create a stockpile of activation energy.

As someone who has an easy time engaging in R& R, but a hard time justifying it, perhaps I also need to adjust my expectations just a tad. Maybe simply accept the fact, as Alexander concludes, that

Some days are like that. Even in Australia.