Tick tick blah – when motivation flags 

“I’ve been writing for 456 days in a row,” I told my amazed 90-Day Challenge writers this morning. “And some days I wonder, is it really worth it?” Motivation flags sometimes; that’s life.

This is one of those days for me, as it happens. For the second time in four days I’m blogging on my iPhone while sitting in a theater waiting for a show to start.

I could be doing lots of things. Like reading the program. Or, I don’t know, breathing. But I’m committed to 15 minutes a day and by God, that’s what I’m doing. (10 to go; I might even get them all in before the curtain.)

Intermission 

The thing about any commitment that takes longer to fulfill than, oh, 10 seconds, is that you’ll go through a period of wanting to give up. Seth Godin wrote a whole book about this; it’s called The Dip. And once you know about the dip, you know (or try to remember) that all you have to do to get out of it is keep moving forward.

My 15 minutes of writing have been happening later and later in the day. Not a good sign. O, predictably, when I sat down in my theatre seat near the end of another far-too-hectic day, I actually thought about not pulling out my phone and writing. I thought, 456 is a very respectable number. Why bother to keep going? 

And then I remembered the Dip. And Reader, well, you know the rest.

Motivation flags, commitment carries

Inspiration doesn’t arrive every morning, like the 7:08 train to the city. Actually, the 7:08 doesn’t arrive some mornings until 8:15 so maybe this is an imperfect metaphor. Or maybe not. Because even if the train doesn’t arrive, you still need to get to work. So you get in your car and drive. Or you call your boss and say you’ll be telecommuting that day. You do what you need to do to get the job done. That’s commitment. That’s what carries you through the Dip.

When motivation flags, let commitment carry you. See you on the other side of the Dip.