Hope and cheesecake

Times are rough these days and motivation is hard to come by. I find myself wasting all kinds of time online and feeling absolutely unmotivated to do homework. Without activities and clubs, I lose track of time and suddenly it’s Friday when it was just Sunday a few days ago. I spend time on projects that are completely unrelated to time sensitive things like schoolwork. Has YouTube stepped up its game recently or am I just more desperate for distractions? Where did all my self-control go?

I recently listened to a podcast on the topic of self-control (I have time to listen to podcasts now!) and the point that really hit home described how it isn’t enough to want self-control for the sake of being self-controlled. It isn’t enough to want a thing for the thing’s sake, or at least it isn’t enough for me.

For example, making cheesecake. No one ever makes cheesecake just to have a cheesecake sitting around, there are other motives in play. Maybe they want to brag about their culinary skills to all their friends and post fancy pictures on social media. Maybe they want to gain a few pounds (for some reason) and thought eating cheesecake would be a good way to go. Or maybe they just wanted the pure, simple joy of putting slices of heaven to their taste buds. The point is, there is more to everything we do than just the doing itself. 

Getting up early, finishing homework ahead of the deadline, working out, these are all good things, but in all our actions there is a deeper reason behind what we do. Being stuck at home and having schedule disruptions distracts me from the why behind my actions. I want to get up early so I can get a good start on my day and I can accomplish those things that make a day feel worthwhile before other things come up. I want to get my homework done ahead of the due date so that I can fully devote myself to those things that come up unexpectedly. So I can be there for a friend when they need someone to listen or when they want someone to hang out with.

In this period of our lives we have unprecedented freedom. We can choose how we spend our time without much of a structure or schedule to fall back on. There are so many opportunities to connect with people, and people finally have time to connect. Use this time to your advantage. Look for that why behind your actions to help you regain motivation and value this point in time, things will never be quite like this again.