How do you find the stamina to keep going? When the day begins at 5:00 a.m. and ends sometime around midnight-thirty, where does your energy come from, your clarity of mind, your ability to multitask and keep track of it all? In the age of BlackBerries and iPads, smartphones and GPS devices, we are all moving at the speed our fingers can type, which is becoming increasingly faster. We plug new contacts into our phones and new addresses into our cars to hurry up and get there sooner to get on to the next client, the next appointment, the next meeting or even the next play date or friend for coffee.
It’s a fast paced world with lots to do; many of us juggling homes, careers, families, relationships and even trying to work out now and then.
So even if you’re successfully managing to eat relatively regularly and keep your job, tuck your kids in and help with homework, kiss your honey, walk the dog and pay your bills, how are you doing all of this?
The upside of all this busy-ness is if you’re motivated, either by your work (what luck!) or by your family (double luck!) you can really create and produce more than you ever thought possible. It’s the thought of your little ones’ faces when you tell them they can rent that tuba they’ve always wanted to play in the school band, or hurrying from a meeting to cook chicken and eat it at home with your significant other and kiss them in between bites that keeps you going. Good, strong coffee doesn’t hurt either.
Busy-ness is an interesting thing. It could potentially be its own scientific law, not dissimilar to Newton’s first law of motion, which discusses the fact that “a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by some outside force.” This, of course, being the exact opposite of inertia, which states, “a body at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by some outside force.” Hmmm. Interesting. It seems that people may behave as any other “body,” keeping the momentum going during particularly busy times as a matter of the course of the motion of the day, Similarly, if given a week off, we may just laze around gratefully, purring like well fed house cats, loathe to move a muscle unless prodded.
http://www.aboutadidam.org/spiritual_master/spiritual_transmission_master/newtons_law.html
It’s come to my attention that my children are what give me stamina. Having been trained by their nighttime needs and the endless 24 hour reality that is parenting, I am now able to push through almost any level of exhaustion to face what comes around the next corner. My question to myself is always, “how the heck would I manage this without the motherhood bootcamp?” and I honestly do not know. My hat is off to those who have the stamina of a warrior and who also are not parents; they are truly intrinsically motivated and I marvel at their fortitude.
Aimee Boyle is a freelance writer and teacher who lives on the shoreline of CT. She is a regular contributor to Empowher.