Then Go Through the Motions

Some days you just don’t feel like it.

There are a million reasons that you don’t “need to” go to the gym.

Does it really matter if you get that daily blog that you promised yourself done, or can it wait a couple of days?

You can just push your sales calls off one more day… it’s not that big of deal, right?

We all have these stories emanating in our mind constantly.

We all have days where we simply want to take the easy route.

We have days where our passion simply fails to show up.

But these are the days that it is most important to push forward (despite those feelings).

Some days you feel like you are just “going through the motions”.

But that’s what I think is the most important habit you can build in your life.

The commitment to simply go through the motions, on the days you really don’t feel like it.

Because let’s be honest, you’re not going to feel 100% every day.

In fact, you’ll probably feel less than 100% most days.

But does that mean you shouldn’t do what you’re supposed to do?

So many days you are going to feel like laying around on the couch and watching movies all day…

You’re not going to feel like writing, making calls, going the gym, cooking a healthy dinner, etc.

But deep down, you know what you should be doing, and you know all the promises you made to yourself.

So even if the days are hard, you must show up, and simply go through the motions.

Going through the motions is better than not going through them, right?

A lot of times I think of the gym as the prime example for “going through the motions”, but it can really be anything in your life that requires consistency.

For me, writing is also a great metaphor.

Rarely do I actually feel like writing.

I love to write, and I love the finished product of my writing, but the day-to-day of writing is always a struggle for me.

But I’ve grown to love that struggle.

I love the inertia that I feel every time I sit down to start putting words on the page.

And I LOVE when I finish a writing session on a day where I really, REALLY didn’t feel like doing it (that was yesterday for me).

I think the inertia I experience writing is simply my mind trying to dissuade me from doing the hard, mental labor that writing requires, I suppose.

But I’ve never once regretted sitting down to write.

Not once.

And so many times, I’ve written a rough draft for a blog that ended up in the trash can, feeling like I was just “going through the motions”, but so many times that rough draft has led me to something great.

I’ve always believed that mediocre days, and the days that you struggle through, lead you to the good days.

In other words, the tough days are necessary.

They are only way to truly build consistency and momentum in anything you do in life.

But you’ll never find that out if you don’t go through the motions.