Energy level and effort
posted in Achieving Goals |
With my energy ebbs and flows, I wondered how I could get things done and how I did, in fact, get what I wanted. I realized that it involved having very small, manageable tasks that I am able to force myself to do every day regardless of energy level that gets me where I’m going. I also have taught myself to ignore how I feel and do what needs to be done in spite of what I want to or don’t want to do. I’m convinced that this is what got me where I am today.
This process of working out the balance between self-force and respect for my energy level hasn’t been an easy one. Once I did an experiment. I had a paper due in a college class and I wanted to see if I could get it done by just doing it only when I wanted to. I tried to “follow my gut” as you might say and ended up having to get an extension. The college course I was taking was at a high level and the paper was difficult for me. I didn’t know where to turn for help. My experiment showed me that I would not actually get anything done if I just worked on it when I “felt like it.”
I learned two things from this experiment. One, is that I needed to push myself to do work even when I didn’t want and two, I needed to figure out where to get help when I felt frustrated (I’ll discuss this in later posts). This one failure taught me lessons that I’ve taken to heart and have helped me in later successes.
Just doing what needs to be done regardless of desire has taken me a long time to reconcile. I have so many up and down moods and up and down energy times that I used to just do what I felt like and I often felt like doing nothing. Unfortunately, that’s what I would do, nothing. Following my desires of what to do left me feeling like doing very little. I had to figure out how to get things done even when I didn’t want to.
This, basically, comes down to force.
