A Wren Says

I stayed in bed an extra three hours. I wasn’t exhausted. I was not falling in out of sleep between two alarms. No. I just didn’t feel like moving, so I didn’t.

I have been one of those people, guilty of waiting for motivation to strike. It never does. Or when it does it is short lived. Clearly, just waiting to “feel” like going after my goals is not a strategy that serves me well.

In contrast, I came across the concept of behavioral activation. It is, in my understanding, the idea that you have to take the actions first and let the feelings come later. (Of course, you should look into what real psychologists have to say about this.) As I thought about it more, excellence is like an acquired taste.

You have to do the thing consistently, even and especially when it isn’t palatable, before something clicks in your brain and body. Until then, it will be bitter and unappetizing. Your body and mind will constantly reject the change. You will hate it, but you will do it anyway. Slowly after you get a taste of it over and over, you will find yourself thinking, “Oh, that isn’t so bad. And do I actually like this now?”

At first, it will be hard to get up and go for the run. Butt after a while, your body will crave it. It will feel difficult to get yourself to get to your study session each night, but after a while your schedule will feel incomplete without it. The exercise, the healthy diet, the work, the effort, and all of the things you can’t bring yourself to do, you avoid them because they don’t feel good, now at this moment. Yet with consistency, the thing you once loathed will become the sweetest part of your day.

Taking my own advice, I will work on shifting my own palate.