Everyday Motivation: How to Sustain Yours and Others' During This Crisis – Day #2 – A New Start

As I took my dog for that long, promised (See Day #1’s promise) walk this morning, I saw new starts around me everywhere. Daffodils were springing up. Plastic Easter eggs were peeking out of trees and shrubs. Decorative bunny rabbits were welcoming us as we walked around the neighborhood. Waiting for me on my phone was a message about the weather: Unsettled.

I was reminded as we walked block by block how when we look for something – when we pay attention – we will find it. I did. Beauty. Growth. Hope. Also, though, there may be many conflicting messages that we need to reconcile. And that reconciling can be a lot of hard work.

So how can we best reconcile those messages and maintain our motivation?

Make a Promise & Carry it Out: Today, as all of my college courses switched officially to online formats, I decided to have a new start myself. With my regular routine already disrupted – albeit unsettled – I decided to rethink it entirely. I planned my day first, and fit my work into it. For me, that’s a major change. Typically, I plan my day around my work. Does this sound familiar? During that long walk, I reflected on how I wanted to transition my students to our online courses. When I sat down to get to work, I didn’t jump in making changes. Just as I had examined those daffodils earlier today, I stopped, looked, and appreciated the goals of my courses and the schedule prior to these unforeseen changes. Then, I was fully engrossed in my work -- in that flow state.

Feed Your Spirit. Listen & Reflect: I looked for opportunities throughout the day to feed my spirit as well. I didn’t have to look far. Christian Brothers University President Jack Shannon always supplies a motivational idea or quote that inspires me. Here’s one of his most recent contributions that I enjoyed and reflected on by Ben Okri:

“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”

Not only do I appreciate the power of verbs in teaching writing, but I appreciate the power of these verbs in Okri’s quote. Creativity has no constraints. Our unsettled weather – our current crisis – can’t constrain, restrict, or reduce our creative spirits, if we don’t want it to. Our creative spirit doesn’t have to be rationed and can’t be sold out – it exists in abundance.

Share: So now, it’s time to tap into our creativity. Let’s commit to being creative and sharing our creative ideas with others. Maybe it’s simply attempting a new twist on a recipe or trying a new way of working as I did. Maybe, like President Jack Shannon, it’s sharing an inspiring quote to help shape our day. Share something creative with your community – a picture, a quote, an idea – and surely it will help give someone a boost, or maybe even a new start.

Let’s actually call today a new start, not call it a slow start or an impeded start – let’s call it a new start with all of the hope that entails.

As you move on with your day, consider these ideas:

Make a promise.

Feed your spirit.

Listen and reflect.

Share your unique qualities with others.

Remember: Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your neighbors. We need you. We value you. We’re all in this together.