Weather and Motivation

I live in the desert and it is beyond hot at this time of year. Even worse is that I know it will only get hotter over the next few months. My husband’s uncle who lives down in Nicaragua amidst the heat and humidity (at least where he lives) near year round told me on our last trip that heat breeds laziness. Never did I believe his words to be truer than now.

Of course there are many times we aren’t necessary able to give into the laziness because quite frankly there is too much to do, but it’s still no fun feeling like you’re swimming upstream to get the daily ins and outs done. A week or so ago, I flew to Denver, Colorado and have to admit that I was shocked at the energy boost the cooler whether gave me, and in cooler I’m taking about high 70s or mid 80s.

I believe what surprises me the most (and what probably shouldn’t) is just how volatile we as humans can be when it comes to what motivates us to what demotivates us. Not to mention there are internal motivators versus external motivators. Internal ones are truly what drive us to achieve our goals. Those could be our personal writing goals, our reasons for writing, etc. Basically what makes us tick. The external motivators can vary widely but when it comes to writing, I like to think of our environment (weather, where we write, music, who is around us, etc.) as well as money, publishing, audience, etc. as these motivators. My reference to the weather above would definitely fall into an external demotivator and as such, its affects are short lived (thank God!) and somewhat avoidable if I stay indoors.

What about you all? What drags you down when you are trying to be productive and how do you manage it?

Happy Writing to you all this week!

Filed under: Toni Kelly, What inspires you?, Writer's Life