Whoops! I really thought I had made a post for you awhile back, about how to overcome lethargy, procrastination, and other forms of what I think of as garden-variety existential malaise. A malaise that befalls most of us from time to time. At least in the modern, industrialized, anomie-laden world; not sure about elsewhere.
It can feel like trying to move through the gravity of Jupiter with a bowling ball in each hand. It can feel like crawling through jello. You can’t even motivate yourself to pick up an envelope and put a stamp on it, let alone walk to the post office. So of course, your activism and small-business launches and calling your long-lost cousins and starting an exercise program and other great plans you have become rather-um-difficult.
I may have buried the topic in another post, instead of going with my original plan to create a post with the above title. Or, maybe I was overcome by the very inertia of which I intended to write! Ah well! Ç’est la vie. No crying over spilt milk.
Yesterday, I was going to add to that post (which it turns out does not exist) a link to this new, utterly superb post by one of my perennial go-to writers on the human condition, David at Raptitude. (See the link and quote at the bottom of this post.)
David pretty much says everything I was gonna tell you (and maybe did tell you, somewhere, buried in some past post that is resistant to being unearthed with the Search function). He says what I was going to say, and more.
My advice in a nutshell, when you are hit by the bogdown fog, the inertial lead blanket, the ungrateful dread, or whatever you call it, is, “Just … Start.” Start something; start anything. Even if it’s just washing a dish, sharpening a pencil, or cutting a tag off a new pair of socks you’ve had sitting around for months but haven’t worn because you have not yet worked up the momentum to pick up your scissors and cut the tag off.
(Is anyone else this existentially sluggish at times besides me?)
(Oh, and if by chance you do remember my posting about this topic, and have any idea when it was or when I titled it, do me a favor and drop me a line, OK? 😉 )
Anyway! Without further ado, I give you …
Further Exploration:
How To Handle The Beast (David at Raptitude.com): “You might know the Beast too. It has many forms. … Whatever the form, the Beast has certain characteristics. It saps your sense of agency and forward motion. It robs you of what might feel like your birthright: the basic ability to function to society’s standards. You lose the sense that you can steer the boat. The Beast may stay away for weeks or months or years. Then one Thursday afternoon, when one too many things goes wrong, it darkens your doorway again and you know that life might be different for a while. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s a good thing. Many of you do though. For what it’s worth, I’ll share what I’ve learned about tangling with the Beast. …”