Friday, November 6, 2015

Eating w(h)ine with my cheese

I presented a workshop at school yesterday on the topic of "Staying Motivated".  I'll be completely honest.  I was very UNmotivated as I created this presentation.  All three months of pondering, researching, creating, and at the end some BS-ing.  For about a month I had a powerpoint presentation with each slide containing a Dr. Seuss quote.  Because Dr. Seuss always has a quote for anything in life, right?  I wrote notes about what I would talk about, what stories I would tell, what YouTube videos I would show, how I would run the workshop.  I even practiced in my office the day before.  Of course that gave me an excuse to stand up and stretch my back since I sit on my butt in front of a computer every day.  I felt semi-confident, sort of prepared, and slightly okay about the whole thing.  I went in and gave it the old college try.  The pre and post assessments came back positive and the students said they learned something.  Which is great.  But do you know what I really wanted to say?
  • Put on your big people undies and get 'er done!
  • Suck it up, Buttercup!
  • You want some w(h)ine with that cheese?
  • Quit yer bitchin'!
  • Stop making excuses.
But I didn't say those things.  I told them motivation comes from within.  And sometimes from the support system around you.  So find some good people that are going to be cheering for you and picking you up when you stumble.  Set a goal and visualize it.  Make a list.  Break goals into pieces. Strategize but be flexible.  Ask for help!  What happens when your motivation droops?  Check in, check in, check in.  This was my advice with some personal stories sprinkled in to make things real. Guess who felt like a hypocrite?  Because I'm not taking my own advice.  I'm eating a whole lot of cheese with my w(h)ine because I haven't been writing.  I'm using excuses as to why I'm not researching my awesome sauce story I thought about and bounced around ideas with my daughter. I'm acting like I'm too tired.  I don't want to stare at another computer screen after doing that all day. I'm bitching about not having the support system to create the "ideal" writing environment.  My undies are definitely big but I'm not getting 'er done.  So I'm going to suck it up, do some research this weekend, and start writing.  For real this time.