A special twenty-two-year-old college student, like a niece to me, shared her woes about distance learning online and some on-site learning but with Covid restrictions and not feeling in a groove nor motivated to “hit the books.”
This young lady was the speaker at her high school commencement, in the Honor Society, and a natural-born leader in so many ways. She gets things done! But she is struggling right now.
Well, we all struggle sometimes and this past year certainly added a few more layers of weight to lift in the everyday workout of life.
So I shared one of my secrets.
Dangle a carrot.
The carrot or the stick?
Dangling a carrot is a simple strategy to be reminded of in complex times and more effective than being hit with a stick to prod one forward, in my opinion.
I told her about my weight loss goal at the moment and that I came up with two rewards to work toward. One is when I am halfway there, and the other is when I reach the finish line. And I am happy to say I am almost at my halfway reward point!
But these are long-term goals. I also have short-term goals, which is what this college girl needed.
For example, each day making a yummy lean green dinner is my reward as it’s my only full meal of the day. I eat very small meals spaced out several times during the day so my body gets into a fat-burning mode so dinner is my treat!
Sometimes I look forward to a long walk or a TV show or movie. There are so many simple every-day-kind-of-carrots.
We brainstormed some college-girl carrots for her upcoming week. I loved seeing her light up at the prospects. Motivation 101!
And now it gets even better.
Wait for it.
I found that there is a carrot emoji on the Smartphone!
This emoji Is the new smiley face in my book, a reminder to be good to ourselves. I sent my college girl a carrot emoji text to check in when I got back home after our socially distant visit in her front yard. The carrot is now our code.
Yes, we have responsibilities but the biggest one is to take care of ourselves. If we are down and out or simply burnt out, we can’t be good for anyone or anything else.
Balance, grasshopper. Work AND play.
The ancient Greeks had a concept for this ideal of excellence that can also be defined as moderation.
Sophrosyne.
A Greek literature professor in my Master’s program taught me this word. She loved the language and always reminded us that Western civilization started in Greece. This was long before the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding in which the patriarch of the family has a story to trace everything back to the Greek. And put this movie on your carrot list if you haven’t seen it. It is very funny. Remember Norman Cousins, award-winning global peacemaker and author of Anatomy of an Illness. He healed himself in large part with the use of laughter. It’s good for what ails you! And there has been a lot ailing us this past year.
The Process Recap: Motivation 101, at your service.
1. What are things that you need to get done? These can be divided into short-term and long-term goals: daily, weekly, monthly. This would be your work or chore time.
2. And what kind of rewards aka carrots do you crave? These too can be divided into short-term and long-term. This would be your playtime.
3. Then match goals to carrots and off you go.
And don’t forget to laugh a little. Or a lot!
Now I have carrot cake on the mind. I am off to research low-carb options, a literal carrot to dangle in my future. Yum!
Read also on Medium.
article photo: Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash