Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Motivation.
March to the beat of your drum.
I started in 2021 with a challenge unlike any I have had before in 29 years. In the short time since, I have had to learn to redo all of the regular activities that brought meaning to my day, and I have to give up those that were not feasible, such as toting around open containers of my favorite snacks. Giving up my regular commute to the fridge and work vending machines has shaved off a few pounds, but giving up my dog walks took a heavy toll on my relationship with my pup. What I have traded off in loss of some independence I have learned to substitute with mindfulness, however. I fractured my left 5th metatarsal and am now bound to a crutch and boot for some time this year. The doctor described it as a “funny ho-ho ha-ha” kind of fracture that he’d like to heal noninvasively. While the road to recovery is still early in its stages, and I may be moving considerably slower than what I have been used to, I am resolved to modify my expectations not to be put down by this challenge and grow as I learn to navigate this new form.
By Hector Cardenas6 years ago in Motivation
Sympathy
January 1st, 2021 marked an exact year of my unemployment. I felt like a hundred years have passed in the last twelve months. If you don’t have a pressure of nine to five job, you would start learning a lot about yourself. It won’t all be helpful though. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. I’m brown and first born. Yes, I have childhood issues. I grew up to be a people pleaser and a bad perfectionist. No surprise there. Well, It took me almost thirty years to come to this spiritual realization that I’m a selfish son of a b*tch. What can I say, I enjoy guilt!
By F. Patel6 years ago in Motivation
How Do I Want To Be Remembered?
God, where do I begin? This year has been excruciatingly exhausting. So much happening all at once, I just couldn't take it. I forced even more chaos upon me to distract myself from the pandora's box that was 2020. All the uncertainty and edging insanity had my spirit broken long before December came rolling around. So the New Year had no significance to me. It didn't feel like anything was going to get better, it didn't feel like it would all work out in the end. Why would it? How could it!? I had no energy to complete simple tasks, I pushed every single one of my friends away, and I didn't even want to see my family. A new year or fresh start wasn't going to rescue me from the dark abyss that had swallowed me whole. It felt like I had lost a large chunk of my identity. Every morning I stared into the mirror for minutes, only to have a complete stranger staring back. There was no shaking that feeling of being an empty vessel on autopilot just living out the rest of my pointless days...
By Deniz Aydin6 years ago in Motivation
“So what?”
“Attitude is a little thing that can make a big difference” was the brightly colored banner posted on the main wall in my elementary school’s lunchroom. From the time we are young, we are taught that if we can have a “good” attitude then success will be ours. What we aren’t taught is how to program them. Attitudes can feel like something out of our control. We can feel ourselves start to spiral down a rabbit hole of negativity when the lady in front of us grabs the last cinnamon bagel at the coffee shop. They can feel like something that is just happening to us in the moment with no way to get out or life raft to grab onto. And in a way, they are. They’re the reaction that our minds have programmed in us to protect us from anything “bad” or “unknown” or “unexpected”. The issue is that this programming doesn't always take into account all the wonderful things that can come out of these “unexpected” moments. It takes a lot of retraining to be able to create the attitudes we want to experience so I’ve come up with some tools that by utilizing regularly, I believe can help bring a little more clarity and joy to our attitudes and to our lives.
By Ashley Andersen6 years ago in Motivation
A Chance at Something New, Something Better.
Here we are a new year and the chance to accomplish another level and complete new goals. I decided to focus my new year on the areas of self-love and stepping outside of my comfort zones. Notice how I said zones as in plural. I want this year to be about how I took control of my life and started living beyond the negative chatter inside of my head or, just thinking and believe things were meant to be this way so I end up staying in places or situations longer than I should have. That is why self-love is major key for me this year. Cultivating enough trust within myself and my abilities to accomplish living a life that I envision for myself. Cultivating an unshakeable love within myself that allows me to always be of service and functioning as my highest self. I will not say anything negative about the whole nine to five lifestyle, but it is just not how I envision spending my time and energy. I want to focus my energy the more passionate side of life.
By Raquel Wyatt6 years ago in Motivation
The Alchemist
'To realize one’s destiny is a person's only obligation.' The first time I read those words was on the back cover of Paolo Coehlo’s The Alchemist, not long after stumbling into a spiral of curiosity about the meanings of life and such. It seemed to me, as an eighteen-year-old girl amidst a world-wide pandemic, that reflection was exactly what the doctor ordered, even if covid-era terms prescribed it as quarantine. The whole world was hanging on by a thread, barely sane enough to keep tragedy out of the headlines for more than a day. But all I could think about was that line, and what it meant for me in my life.
By Ky Angelika6 years ago in Motivation
No Resolutions
I didn’t have any resolutions polished and ready to go in the beginning of 2021. In fact, I distinctly remember sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, sitting drunk on my couch with my fiancée, slurring something along the lines of “It doesn’t even matter, right? The world’s, like, fucked anyway - I’m gonna be easy on myself next year.” We had planned on marrying in 2020, and buying a house, and I was due for a raise. See, I’d had a stable job that I loved, which went under as soon as Covid19 hit. We lost our savings before we could even blink, and everything continued going south from that point on. So, I’d be nicer to myself next year; more forgiving of my shortcomings.
By Cat Bog6 years ago in Motivation
2021: Just The Beginning!
Where do I even start? I have several goals set forth for the year; some of which are much easier than others. Shall I start with my recently discovered music dream? What about the internet radio station that I want to start? My love interest? Where do I want to move? All of those questions are fantastic and I will answer them throughout this adventure. However, none of this is going to make any sense without answering one simple question. How did I end up in my dad’s house at 26, with no car, no money and no job?
By Skip Andrews6 years ago in Motivation
Let's Talk Goals, Not Resolutions
There's a reason people have an issue with realizing their resolutions every year. Sometimes, the resolution is vague or generic. There are many of those who want to lose weight, or be more active, maybe eat healthier. The issue with such a vague resolution is the lack of a recognizable goal. Let's take weight loss as an example. How much weight would you want to shed? As much as possible is not exactly a great metric to measure your success against.
By Lum Loom6 years ago in Motivation
Keep Moving Forward
Every year, the same question circulates. What are your New Years' resolutions? We put so much pressure on ourselves, without fail. First, your mother asks you, then your sister, then you ask yourself? Just me? Figures. I always put way too much pressure on the idea of a new year, a new time to reinvent myself. Spoiler alert: it never works. Now, I am not saying that resolutions don't work. I do, however, believe that life is not one size fits all. As much as I would love to be able to pick up habits and do new things and become a better me as quickly as when Thanos snapped his fingers, that is just not me. Knowing this, I decided to try something different. Instead of pledging to get more sleep or lose weight or stop eating fast food, I decided to focus on listening to my body. While focusing on that, I will shift my negative attitude and not put myself down over my imperfections. As Meet the Robinsons teaches us, "keep moving forward."
By Parker Sealy6 years ago in Motivation
