Getting Fired Up to Solve My Problems

Hey, how is it going? Below is one of the most popular articles I've written in a long time.

Many people (besides myself) are feeling unmotivated, sluggish, or too stressed to function.

Here's my take on how to manage the problem as a writer and multi-business owner.

I was unmotivated and anxious. But something new has been helping me look forward to each day.

(It’s been a while since I felt excited to get in bed, looking forward to tomorrow.)

I felt that way last in 2020. I was falling in love with my husband, writing a novel, and cycling with him around Japan.

In 2021 my dad randomly got sick, died, and I got sacked with the weight of estate responsibilities.

There’s been an oppressive weight of things I am responsible for ever since.

It’s created a low, unmotivated, frozen, overwhelmed, depressed

“I don’t want to get out of bed” vibe

that boomerangs back.

Being honest about it helps. It helps me connect to people who feel similarly and we can know we are not alone.

(I do this in my weekly FunLetter emails)

And things shifted further very recently when I realized:

the weight I’m feeling is never going to go away.

I’d assumed that once I do XYZ things, that weight laying on my shoulders since 2021 would finally lift up.

BUT THIS IS A LIE

It will never wrap up. Not now.

Not now that I own the struggling, family business I took on to honor my father…

A permanent responsibility I’ve gained.

Unless I give up (HA! Which I am not going to do)…

The weight will never go away.

The weight won’t change when I do XYZ.

BEST CASE: There will always be more work to do.

So I can’t make the weight disappear…

But I can change how heavy it feels to me.

HOW? By changing my relationship to the weight:

I don’t have to wait until I am done the whole mountain of hard tasks to feel a sense of freedom and release.

That’s where I need to shift my focus…

I realized I need to put more energy into shifting this internal dynamic, not just stressing about the tasks that need to be done.

I needed to shift something on the inside.

I NEED MORE FIRE!

Motivation is one thing — but feeling fired up is another.

To me, it is a very specific feeling that drives me into action from a place of flow.

It’s very uplifting to my spirit, as well.

And from there I decided that I was going to do something new.

GET FIRED UP.

I opened up a document and started collecting pieces of my writing that express my fire.

Words. Video. Audio.

I’m inspiring, I realized. People have told me that alot.

I should inspire myself more intentionally.

The document came together pretty quickly in my favorite note-taking app, Obsidian.

But this wasn’t going to be one and done. This is going to be a practice.

I decided I was going to get fired up every day.

I will sit down and find the things that inspire my fire.

I will refer back to the materials I have collected every day.

Instead of stumbling on my inspirational words accidentally, I’ll make it a science.

My writings and words have inspired me to get out of a hole time and time again,

but over the upcoming weeks, I’ll explore them as well as the words of others in books, podcasts, videos, and so on.

Since putting my GET FIRED practice into place, I’ve realized that:

Being fired up matters because things in my life right now require bravery and vulnerability.

I can fail. It’s meaningful. It’s emotional. It’s unfamiliar.

That’s why it is hard. That’s why it is draining.

That’s why it’s like a mountain that makes my stomach drop.

And I am grieving, I am grappling with my mental health, I am tired or anxious or low sometimes.

I need to be fired up to feel strong enough to do the heavy lifting that my life requires now.

So I’m working on giving myself that fire.

Motivation is not something I pray will bless me.

It is something that I move towards and seek out for myself, it’s a food that I imbibe daily.

There’s no rationalizing inspiration into an existence when it’s not there.

In that way it is pure.

If I don’t feel inspired or motivated,

if I wake up and it’s not there, I will find it.

And now that I am putting in the work,

I am seeing it appear more bit by bit.

Thanks for reading.

This article first appeared as a member-only article on medium (here)

Want more from me?

Read more about my products and services, as well as updates on my personal motivation journey at sofiawren.com