What is motivating me today? A quiet house and an appointment this afternoon that’s going to take away my sewing time so I have to get busy now.
Sometimes though it’s all I can do to start so I’ve been looking up motivational tips and I came across the “Fresh Start” idea.
I think we’ve all given ourselves a fresh start or two. I mean the whole idea of New Year’s resolutions is giving yourself a fresh start right? “I didn’t do my best last year but this year I’m going to….” Or, “I really went crazy on that cruise but as of tomorrow I’m staring back on my healthy habits” And me, I was an Army Brat so every new place we moved to was a new opportunity to be a better me (in kid speak that translates to being more popular).
Why is it that these arbitrary deadlines are motivating to us? In a study at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania researchers found that a “fresh start” even a made up one, helps us put past failures out of our mind and promotes a big-picture view of our goal.
Isn’t it usually our fears that hold us back? And if our fear is we are going to mess up again, we are probably not going to try whatever it is we want to achieve; sewing our own winter coat for example, or being organized or exercising regularly. However when we believe we have a fresh start we are able to keep the past in the past and that our new day to begin again on that goal is exactly that, a new day and it’s full of opportunities for success.
So maybe I won’t wait for January 1st to access the past and plan for the future, but perhaps September 1st, or even today, is the day I start making a plan for my fresh start. This time I am making my winter coat and this year it’s going to fit and look smashing (being organized can wait til later).
My other musings on motivation:
Motivate Me
Monday Motivation: Routines
Monday Motivation: Chocolate