The first quarter of the year is always a much busier time for our family.
By the end of April, I’m usually drained and feeling a bit burnt out. This year wasn’t too bad actually because our youngest child is now almost five, but the addition of our home search in late March added to the overall busyness.
During this time, and even into May, I just didn’t feel like doing much of anything. I had a difficult time getting my everyday tasks at home done. And then that extended to creative tasks as well, which are usually an outlet, but became a chore. That’s why I haven’t been creating videos and writing here as often as before.
I did only what needed to be done.
I can’t say if that’s the right approach or not, but it’s what I did. Because there’s always something to do, I struggle with knowing when to just relax and do nothing in order to rest, and when I need to push through the lack of motivation and just get started on something.
I recently watched a leadership series called Soundtracks, on the topic of Overthinking, that really helped to adjust my mindset.
Now, I am an over-thinker. I thought that was a good thing because it meant I was more thorough in my decision making. I tend to look at a problem from different angles to find the right solution. I think that has served me well in the past. But that’s not what the speaker, Jon Acuff, was addressing. He was referring to negative thoughts that play repeatedly in our minds and that lead to inaction. It’s a form of fear that steals our time, energy and creativity.
For me, that was in thinking “I just don’t have time for this” and “I’m too tired right now” and “It doesn’t matter if I do this or don’t do that”. All of those thoughts bred inaction, and they’re not really true. I did have time, I wasn’t too tired and it does matter that I do this!
Another part of the equation that I picked up from the series is that overthinking leads to inaction and then that inaction leads to more overthinking. So it’s a very unhelpful cycle which ultimately leads to nothing being done. The way to break out of that is to change the thought pattern, replacing it with a positive one.
For example, the speaker is a writer and at one point he realized that he had gone several weeks without producing any content. So he gave himself a new positive soundtrack which is “writers write” and he would just write on a regular basis. Some of his writings were not serious, not something he intended to publish in any way, he just wrote. It’s like an exercise, the more he did it, the more consistent, better and productive he was at writing.
That part in particular was very helpful for me personally in terms of getting me off the sofa, so to speak. In getting my act together and back to creating content that encourages. An Encourager encourages. Find out more about Soundtracks on YouTube here.
Are you lacking motivation? What thoughts are playing on repeat in your mind that are keeping you from moving forward? What positive soundtrack can you play instead?
