Going Through the Motions

I want to become a person who is routinely deliberate with my actions. I want to be someone who recognizes every opportunity to grow and the good being deliberate in my choices can bring. I am not that person yet, but I believe I will continue to grow to become who I want to be. Inspiration for today comes from a 3-minute video I watched where Jocko Willink gave advice to a man looking to lose weight. I highly recommend watching this video. The main piece of inspiration I took from his words centered around going through the motions.

Jocko said that there will be days when you do not want to do anything. Where you have no motivation to act. Those are the days when you need to take emotion out of the equation and go through the motions. I will honestly say I have been in pursuit of trying to eliminate “going through the motions” in my own life. I mentioned above I want to be deliberate. I want to recognize the gravity of my choices with everything I do at a conscious level. Jocko’s words were a reminder to me that the feeling of going through the motions is a part of the journey.

Every day will not feel the same. There will be days where I do not want to wake up early, where I do not want to run, or where I do not want to write! Those days are inherently more difficult than the days where I am excited and “motivated,” but are days I must get through. Going through the motions of an activity is not a bad thing when the opposite choice is doing nothing. Going through the motions at least enables some sort of progress. A personal best does not need to be set in every lift or every run. I do not need to constantly be writing my best newsletter every single day. What I need to do is show up when everything in my mind is telling me not to. I need to put in the work when I do not want to.

It is in my quest to become more deliberate that I need to realize the times when I am going through the motions can be the most influential in my growth. It is easy to show up when I am motivated. When I wake up excited to attack my day, when I feel light on my feet on a run, when I feel highly focused and words come easily as I write, whatever the task, it is easier when I feel encouraged to act. It is the other days, the “blah” days, when I am lacking motivation where I can cultivate my resilience by showing up. In these days, performing at any capacity is much better than doing nothing. In reflecting on my journey to be more deliberate I have previously pushed to avoid going through the motions. I now realize I need to adopt a perspective change to see going through the motions as not a bad thing, but rather just a part of the journey.