New chapter – new motivation!
Hello Leipzig. I have just arrived in a new city, dedicating myself to new tasks and my personal ‘I want to do’- list is growing daily. This is happening, although the last weeks I got used to not getting up before 9 am and my first duty then was having a two hour coffee break prior starting my day more or less productive.
But now it is: new city, new motivation. Besides work there is a lot more on my agenda: a language course (in order to finally meet the ‘French skills’, I mentioned in my CV), cultural events (for which I rarely had some spare time thus far) or the planning of our first ecoholic-style biking trip in spring; just to mention a few examples. I completely get myself into it. Into a new chapter of life, different surroundings and many new challenges.
It really is a useful phenomenon. Every time there is a new beginning of something, let it be a move to a different city (or even country), a new job, studies or all combined; then suddenly you find so many things you want to change as well. Or you want to go for. One challenge often leads to the situation that you take up many more in addition – purposely and voluntarily. It wakes us up, drives creativity and the hunger for more experiences; and generally it works absolutely exhilarating.
Beforehand, your day was significantly dominated by routine: getting up, working, eating and sleeping. Maybe you also read a book now and then, watched some episodes of your current favorite TV series or met some friends. If you were particularly good, you might have even integrated a (almost) regular workout into the typical programme. However, with that you were already working to full capacity. I mean, how should there fit in something else anyway?
But then you get kicked into the new chapter of life and suddenly you balance 100 things all at once and you don’t even feel overextended!
How does this work? I have no idea, but who cares!?
We shouldn’t think much about this wave of motivation, we just should take advantage of it. Because it works pretty well for changing things you always wanted to change. To do something you set out to do since forever, but never did because daily routine blocked the action.
All at once, you can reinvent yourself, extend your aims and discover chances. You have to find a new rhythm anyway, so why not trying something different and allow for stepping out of the line?
Maybe this is the point where you might start asking: All well and good, but where is the green moral of this story?
Of course there is one, although indirectly this time. The excess of motivation is extremely suitable for not only making life more diverse, but also to green it up. This could be in the sense of losing ballast and enjoying the advantage of a more minimalistic lifestyle, switching to a healthier and more sustainable nutrition or attending advanced training courses. Also voluntary engagement or the discovery of the joy on ‘close to nature’ experiences which do not necessarily require a car are examples, that bring you one step closer to a green and conscious life.
The positive side effect is: Everything that is good for the environment is automatically also good for you.
So, why not next time if there is a big change, using that great potential and killing two old habits with one stone!?