Motivation & Summertime Mode-Can they go together?

“When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble is too difficult to overcome.” — Wilma Rudolph

Personal Note:

Summertime! It can give us that feeling of anything is possible as we seem to have more freedom, more daylight and more time to play.

I’ve been a fan of what I call “summertime mode” for a long time.

And, yet, summertime mode can backfire on us.

Be sure to keep reading to see what I’m talking about!

But first, I’d like to share what I’ve been up to this past Spring, as I was in Summertime Mode quite early! LOL!

I want to share a bit of it with you, as the joy my husband and I received from this time away needs to be shared!

We were gone for a total of 6.5 weeks! I know, it’s a long time, right? My husband retired in December 2021 and now we are taking more long times away. (I’m still working, though! ?)

The first 2 weeks were on the southeast part of the US-visiting with friends and family in Atlanta, Georgia and Florida.

It was so great connecting with those we hadn’t seen for such a long time.

After our southeast visits, we flew to Paris from Miami to spend a couple of days getting acclimated to the next time zone and the next adventures that were awaiting us.

I hadn’t been to Paris in maybe 30 years or more! Even though it was a short stay of only 2 days and it rained one of those days-I still loved it!

We walked all over, making sure to spend time in gardens as well as to take in some of the “main attractions” of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame & Sacre Coeur.

We were then off on the wonderful trains of Europe to Germany, where we had the amazing experience of staying with a former exchange student of my husband’s family in the Dusseldorf area.

Of course, that exchange student is now an adult, a teacher and a family man-a long ways from his time spent in the USA.

What an incredible time we had being in a small town with this family…and their family. It was over the Easter Holidays and their vacation time, so we really got to enjoy all their festivities they do with family and their communities.

I am in deep gratitude for having had this experience.

We went on to travel to many other areas of Germany, staying at great Airbnb’s and getting to explore those areas in a fair amount of detail as we stayed long enough at each place.

And, we walked and walked almost everywhere. We walked at least 10+ miles a day…just exploring. Definitely didn’t worry about not getting exercise!

We came home fully satiated from our time away from home.

We did indeed experience “summertime mode,” even if it was springtime.

Why am I sharing my recent adventures of travel with you?

#1-I want to encourage you to take as much time away from your normal routine as you possibly can.

Getting away and being in “summertime mode,” is good for your body, heart and soul!

“Summertime mode” is all about relaxing, enjoying, playing and just plain “being.”

I know it’s not feasible for everyone to take extended time away as we did, but anytime you do take off, is going to give you the space to be more mindful, to be more present to your surroundings and to break the day to day patterns that you might need a break from.

Breaking our habitual routines up, even for a short while, allows for opportunities to experience ourselves in new ways, to open up doors of possibilities and expand our life’s experiences.

#2-The other reason I’m sharing about my personal adventures is that I want you to know that I came back feeling so good—and then…I struggled getting back with some of my “work habits!”

So, it’s rather an oxymoron to for me to say, “break the old routines of your daily life,” and then tell you: “It’s hard to get back into them!” LOL!

But hang in there with me.

I felt totally unmotivated! Thank goodness for my clients that awaited my return. Knowing I was there to support them in their change work, motivated me to be present for them in their in sessions’ work.

And, as I love working with my clients and love supporting them in making their changes…this aspect of my “work” was easy to get back into.

But then there are other things to do when having a business-lots of admin stuff such as writing articles, tending to my website and keeping in touch with my community.

When it came to all that admin “stuff,” I just wanted to keep being in my “summertime mode.”

It’s here where I needed to find my motivation.

I kept having that voice of “I don’t want to” that kept me feeling the burden of “not getting things not done.”

Carrying around that emotional burden feels heavy and not conducive for keeping the joy in one’s life alive!

I had to go back to the basics of what is motivation, how do you get it and how to keep it going.

If you have had this same type of experience of being unmotivated or are experiencing it right now then you need to read the feature article for tips and strategies to support you from being unmotivated to being in inspired motivational action!

And, you can still enjoy some great “summertime mode!”

Would love to hear your stories and challenges of feeling unmotivated and how you got to the other side.

Warmly,

Jackie