Funk

Do you ever find yourself in a funk? That’s where I found myself today. It really started a couple days ago. Monday I was talking to my daughter on her mission, and I was trying to exercise. Problem was, I didn’t want to do what I was doing to exercise, so I talked to my daughter instead. Tuesday, early morning, my husband and I drove 2 of our kids in to the airport so they could go spend a week with grandparents and family. We left our house at 5am and arrived back in Wasilla in time to drop our youngest off at school, and then came home, arriving about 8:30am. Both of us were tired so we went back to bed until 10am. That was my mistake yesterday. When I got up I decided I didn’t have time to exercise and study my scriptures, so I studied, showered, and then I had to be out the door to start our afternoon/evening of afterschool activities, grocery shopping, etc.

This morning when I got home from Seminary I was somewhat sleepy, but not tired. But I had no desire to do anything productive. I had a bunch of things that needed to get done, for myself, my business, and for others, and some of them had time deadlines today. But I just didn’t want to do any of them, and it all hinged on not wanting to exercise. I love to exercise, it boosts my energy, and brightens my outlook on life, so this was frustrating mentally, to know I needed to, to know I had set goals, and that I wanted to complete them, but to really just not want to do them.

What do you do when you find yourself in a funk? I have a friend who once told me, “put on your big girl pants and get to work!” That’s what I decided to do. First, I started to think about why I didn’t want to exercise, and I finally realized what the problem was this whole week. I was bored with the program. I had done this program, and it’s companion program, and had started over. I was 1 week in and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. That was great information. When we have a funk, it’s good to figure out why. I think often we get in a funk about a goal we set, or about something we want to accomplish, and we get into it and then just quit because we aren’t having fun, aren’t seeing the results of our hard work, or maybe the results we wanted or thought we would see. But, I was reminded today, we need to figure out what the real reason we are not wanting to go on is, and then adjust, but don’t give up!

Today’s problems was easy to fix. I just picked a different program and started it. This is another mental block that people often have. It’s Wednesday today. Who starts a new program in the middle of the week? That’s crazy, I know! But goals don’t have to start on Monday, workout programs don’t have to be done in the timeframe allotted. I remember doing a workout called 80 day obsession. It’s 13 weeks of 6 day a week workouts that last around 1 hour each. The first time I did it, I had set a goal to do it in the 13 weeks. I ended up not finishing it because I took my daughter to Utah to go to college. But, I finished it in 14 1/2 weeks. What did I do during the 10 days I was gone? I didn’t just stop, I didn’t stop because I wasn’t going to hit my mark, I kept going with a different workout I could do without equipment, and then jumped back in where I left off when I got home. Just because it’s a 21 day workout program, or a 4 week program doesn’t mean it has to be completed exactly in that timeframe. I will eventually return to the one I was doing before this week, but it might be a while since I’ve moved on to a new program that I will enjoy for a while, regardless of the day started or ended on. Don’t let your goals be derailed by waiting to start on them on a Monday. Don’t let the funk last so long that you can’t pull yourself out of it.

Another thing I have learned, that helps me keep going, is a phrase from the scriptures: Endure to the end. Life is full of doing a lot of mundane things, for a really long time. But, all those mundane things have to be done to get through life. I remember being discouraged as a young mom as I washed load after load of laundry, washed sink full after sink full of dishes, only to walk away and come back 5 minutes later to another sock that somehow got missed, another dirty dish in the sink. But, life isn’t just about the mundane tasks that need to be completed everyday. We have the capacity to learn, to grow, to become better. There is opportunity and joy all around us in life. We don’t have to begrudgingly endure, we can endure well. I want to be able to run around with my grandkids, even when I’m old, but that requires a lot of mundane work along the way. But the rewards are priceless. We have to look to the future, what we really truly want, to motivate us in the now. Enduring well is a happy way to endure.

I am usually a pretty self-motivated person. I like to get things done. But, I think everyone finds themselves in a funk once in a while. The goal is not to stay there very long. I hope these ideas helped you to figure out ways to get out of a funk if you find yourself in one, and I would love to hear your ideas of how you have gotten yourself out of a funk in the past.