The "Blahs" Stole my Motivation!!

Blah. Blah and Blah.  Do you ever have those days?  You know what I am talking about, the days where it doesn't matter what is happening around you, you are just Blah. Blah happens, in fact Blah can happen quite a lot if you are not careful.  In my experience Blah happens for a few main reasons.

Blahs happen when you have tipped over your stress point.  For me the Blahs hit the hardest when I have peaked my fun meter.  You know what I mean, you have been going down the road of life at such a horrific pace that when things slow down you body just crashes.  I am not a doctor of anything, so I don't know the biological truths behind this, but I find that when my body is past exhausted by the pace of my life I get a serious case of the Blahs. I don't want to clean, cook, do laundry or even move across the room.  I want to sit and be Blah.

Blahs happen when there isn't a clear plan for the immediate future.  I have noticed when I don't have plans for upcoming activities I tend to sit down and do nothing.  Don't get me wrong, I love downtime.  In fact I really love downtime. But knowing when that downtime is going to end makes it even better.  While I know we would all love to be on vacation for the rest of our lives, it wouldn't do us much good.  Having productive activities can give us a sense of motivation and success.  Doing nothing really leads to boredom and a serious case of the Blahs.

Blahs happen when we feel we aren't contributing to the world around us, or that nobody notices if we do.  We have all seen the movies where the spectacular secretary is so good at her job that no one notices her.  She lives with her 5 cats and reads romance novels every evening while imagining that one day some gorgeous man will notice her and sweep her off to a mansion.  Things don't have to be that dramatic for us to feel unnoticed and under appreciated.  It is hard to be motivated when it doesn't feel like anyone cares.  People around us, including family and friends, can unintentionally give us that impression, sometimes frequently. Hey, if you ask my kids, I don't do anything, I'm just Mom. (Duh Mom!!)

So what do we do about a serious care of the Blahs?  Well, first off, everyone is entitled to feel Blah every once and a while.  You wouldn't be normal if you never felt apathetic to the world around you.  The key is not to stay there.  The next step is to do an inventory of your life.  Are you very stressed?  Have you been on the go for so long that the Blahs may be a defense mechanism for overload? Do you have plans for your life that excite you?  While the reality is we will always have more dishes and more laundry, we need to have something we enjoy on the menu as well.  Make sure to plan that in.  Also, look around for people to appreciate you.  While we all recognize that we have to love ourselves first, (at least I hope we all know that.) we also need to know others value us.  I'm sure you contribute to the world, so figure out how.  Making the lady in the checkout line smile counts.  Identify these contributions, don't be shy or modest. 

You may wonder why I am blogging about the Blahs and how they relate to Prepared Binder.  In my experience the Blahs are responsible for a lot of nothing being accomplished.  When it comes to emergency preparation the Blahs can overwhelm and deter many people from getting started.  Hopefully by reducing the Blahs you will feel more motivated to take control of your life.

Today's Question:  How can you stop the Blah's in your life?  What can you accomplish when you do?