Dabbl

              What is it like to be motivated?? Well, it is a feeling of energy and clarity. This feeling is very mysterious. It comes whenever it pleases and goes as quickly as it arrived. Is there a way to harness this feeling? To call on it whenever you get the urge to? Are we allowed to touch this and manipulate it in the way we would like to? Or are we simply someone on a bench waiting for a train? Are we just waiting for it to come on its own mysterious schedule and we can only decide whether or not to get on?

              Last night, after a couple hours of being in the blahh state after work, I took a shower. I’m not sure about you, but I am usually off my phone during my showers. Then, something unusual happened. In a weird way, I got this feeling of energy and clarity. I started thinking about business effortlessly and reached out to a few of my friends to get their opinion on a few products that they currently use, just to stir up some thought on what I should consider selling. Why did this happen then? Why didn’t it happen at 3pm when I was in a lull, trying to be productive. What triggered my brain in that shower that happened to result in some amplified brainpower?

              First off, I stayed true to my current “no blahh before 6pm rule”. But that didn’t exactly trigger this train of thought. That shower triggered the train of thought. I did everything on my daily to do list like walk, meditate, write, and so on, but nothing yielded to this sense of clarity as I did in that shower. Humans are very emotional. I don’t think we realize how emotional we actually are. Even when we think we are in control, we aren’t. Humans make all decisions based off emotions, then we back them up using logic. This latter is where our ego lies. We are filled with mood swings, whether they are high peaks or low valleys. And I want to investigate what made my valley turn into a peak. One theory I have is that it is completely natural and out of our control. This is entirely possible. The other theory is that I was exposed to some sort of stimulation where my mind reacted in a way that provided me energy and clarity. I believe it is a mixture of the two. Looking back from when I was taking the shower, I did not do anything out of the ordinary. In other words, I didn’t do anything intentionally to give myself a little brain juice. If anything, I would have rather started to settle down since I was about to go to bed. I had a little snack at about 6 pm, but I doubt this would have sparked anything at the time of my shower at 9:30 pm. Maybe it was what I was doing before the shower. I was stationary for a good hour or so, just relaxing. I went a full work day without blahh and I was enjoying a little bit that evening. As I took in a little blahh, I sunk into that stationary, zombie brain state. This was my valley. And perhaps it was the simple act of forcing myself to get out of bed to take a shower that set off the motivational attitude. Maybe all I needed to do the whole time was to force myself to do one thing, no matter how small it was. When I was in the shower, unnoticeably I started to think of who I can reach out to for business help, how I could start selling t shirts my brother designed, and looked at top rated home fitness equipment that I could potentially use as ideas for my own endeavors. It could have been a number of things that led me to go down this alley. It could have been the idea of business that popped in my head. I started thinking about a friend of a friend who owns a small ecommerce brand. It could have been me thinking about what workout I was going to do the following day. It could even have been that I just put on brand new sheets on my bed and I was excited to climb into them. It could have been a number of things. However, I don’t think I do know the answer to that. I think it’s more mysterious than a simple cause and effect analysis. But let’s look at what all those suggestions have in common. They are required a change in state. They all required me to put my phone down. They all required me to force myself to do something, even if it was something as small as getting up to take a shower. State change is my best guess so far. I was in a low, then I went into a high. Changing states is really what my “No Blahh” initiative is all about. It is to stop the time wasters so I can immediately move onto the next item on my list. In other words, it forces myself to constantly change states so I don’t have time to think and sink into a state of blahh. Keep myself moving and keep my mind occupied with new stimulation. Change your state, change your mind. I went from having potential energy on my bed, to kinetic energy when I was up to take a shower and get ready for bed. I know this sounds small, but all it takes is a small spark that snowballs into another thought, that provokes another thought, that leads to this state of consciousness, excitement, and motivation. Change your state.

When you are in blahh state, force yourself to do something small. Force yourself to put down whatever led you to the blahh state in the first place, and set yourself out to accomplish something small. And when this train of thought eventually comes, get on it and see where it goes. Don’t worry about the time or other less important things that you have to do. Get on the train. These trains don’t happen often and they don’t wait for anyone. You get on it and ride it until the train can’t travel any longer. I believe that the more often you take advantage of these trains, the more your body and mind will thank you for doing so. And as a token of appreciation, your mind will send you more trains for you to get on and explore. Get on the train.