Recently I’ve felt in a bit of a slump. I’m desperately searching high and low for the motivation that I cherish so dearly but it seems to have done a runner, and this gal has not laced up a pair of trainers in many a week…

Before I began writing this massive word dump of a post I genuinely Googled ‘how to find your motivation’ and was met with many an uninspiring page telling me to ‘set goals’ or to ‘get excited’. Listen, Lacey the Wellness Coach, I get it, but if I was excited I wouldn’t be asking a god damn search engine how to energise myself to smash through my to do list or y’know…eat something that isn’t chocolate chip Wheatabix. If you came here expecting a magical formula that will re-motivate you to grab life by the bollocks then I’m sorry, but this isn’t it. What I would say though is that it can really help to figure out where yours might have sauntered off to in the first place.

Personally I can pinpoint the when, the why and the how; when I was burgled in France (an experience I’ve considered writing about – is this something anyone would be interested in reading?) I think they may have stolen my mojo too. I went away with grand plans about all the city guides I’d write and the sense of relaxation I’d come home with ready for the new academic year. I wrote down (yep, actually committed to paper) how my weeks would pan out now that I have the final year of my degree to juggle alongside blogging, which is very much a full time profession, and I genuinely felt quite excited to get into a new routine and take control over different areas of my life. When my laptop and phone went walkies I didn’t only have to deal with the emotional strain but the huge practical issues that come with running an online platform…with no access to the internet. I found myself logged out of everything from my emails to Instagram with massive hoops to jump through in order to regain access on the little replacement handset I used until I returned home. Work I had spent hours over had vanished forever (note to self: buy an external hard drive!) and some of it hadn’t even been submitted yet. I managed to muster up the energy – mainly fuelled by wine and stinky cheese – to redraft by hand (practically Victorian…) to ensure I still met deadlines and didn’t allow such an ordeal (read: total fucking wankers) to actually affect my professionalism and ability to pay my bills. Beyond that, however, it was a bit of a shit fest where work was concerned.

Whilst I ensured that I didn’t let the dramas of my first night in bread and cheese country spoil my entire trip, I did find myself on an unplanned two week Haitis from all things blogging. I just about managed to post on Instagram now and then but I didn’t have the access to respond or to tweet or to just generally get involved with all the lovely things that are so important to me within the blogosphere. The schedule I had drafted and taken away with me literally went out the door and instead of coming home feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world I felt a bit stressed at the prospect of the million and five things that I was now actually behind on.

It’s been a funny ol’ week because despite telling myself multiple times that I just need to draw a line and start afresh with everything from my blogging schedule to my (currently non existent) exercise regime I’ve struggled to actually put it into practice. Instead I’m still obsessing over things I’d intended to do 10 days ago and quite frankly I’m really fucking tired. I’m writing this post not only to ramble at you all about my missing mojo but also in a sense to force myself to snap out of it. Since you’ve come all this way and you’ve listened to me for a whole 687 words I thought I would share a few – realistic, totally un-Lacey – things I’m going to try and put into practice in the hope that I can wake up tomorrow morning at the start of a new week and at least feel a little bit like the normal Beth again: 

JUST FUCK IT

See, told you this wasn’t a place for Lacey. Sometimes shit happens and you’ve just got to chuck it in the fuck it bucket and move on. Draw that line. Burn that to do list. Rip the week out of your diary and pretend it never happened. Whatever, just stop dwelling on something that you literally CANNOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT. Whether you think you lost your motivation because of a particular reason, or you’re just feeling a bit meh and need a kick up the booty, take this as your moment to move on.

MAKE A TO DO LIST, THEN HALVE IT

I am so guilty of making myself a mammoth to do list at the beginning of every day and I know when I’m writing it that I’d have to be Superwoman on crack to actually tick off everything. By setting yourself an impossible task you’re only gearing yourself up for a fall and all the uncrossed things will totally undermine everything you DID do today. So, write a  to do list by all means (I’m the queen of them) but then halve or even quarter it and be realistic in your expectations.

WORK WITH A FRIEND

So you can eek out their motivation and steal all their ideas. No, seriously, spending time with someone who does actually have their shit together will help you to sort yours out too. Energy is contagious and you might actually find some of that excitement Lacey was harping on about by bashing out your ideas with someone that you can bounce off of.

TAKE SOME TIME OUT

When you’ve been sat staring at a blank page on your computer for approximately 68 years or have spent about 7 times as long as what was actually needed on a task then it’s time to just call it a day. The only real outcome is that you’ll get frustrated, the clock will whizz by and all you did was blink and you’ll feel like a bit of a failure. The reality is you’re not a failure but sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. Give yourself some headspace – go for a walk, watch Gilmore Girls, run a hot bath with candles and wine (always wine) and then start afresh tomorrow.

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