I choose YOU, MotivationCHU

I have like 12 things I want to post about right now, but only the time and energy span for one of them... so what to choose? Ideas include book club, the book for book club, the book The Help I read AFTER reading the book for book club that shares strange parallels and not with the book club book, the meeting I went to with a visiting scholar this morning, motivational issues/patterns (might be entering an up swing) both related to school and housework, interesting observations about the blogosphere, Twilight, the way my brain works, a new years resolution update, or perhaps something else entirely.

So, what to pick?

I will go with, motivation. There are two things I am noticing about patterns in my motivation to get things done.

(1) It moves in cycles. I am talking about your basic sine shaped cycle. (OK, here is a picture of a sine cycle for you non-math geeks out there).


This relates more to school/dissertation stuff than to housework, though really it fits both. I will go through a month or two or intense motivation where I am extremely productive and want to move forward and am interested and purse ideas etc, and then I hit a downturn in the cycle (a trough in economic terms), when I can't get motivated to do ANYTHING, I don't want to read or write or think about what I am supposed to be thinking about, and I wonder intensely if this is really the path for me. Then, eventually, whether it be time or some other trigger, I start to regain motivation.

Let me tell you. Most of December, and clearly all of January have been the bottom of the trough. But perhaps, just maybe, I am seeing the light of an upswing coming. I actually felt motivated to read stuff this morning. OK. I did not actually read it, but I felt motivated to! Thats a big step in the right direction.

(2) When it comes to housework, I always want to be doing it when its not possible. Right now, I want to clean out my fridge. It is nasty and gross and there might be stuff growing in there. (OK, I will admit it, its not "might be", there IS stuff growing in there, but its all in sealed containers, so I tend to put it off). It needs to be cleaned out. Whenever I am home I am just tired or distracted, but then I get the urge to take care of it, feel the will to deal with the smells (I have serious smell issues, really I should just make DH clean it out), and I am not even home. I wish just once and a while I would get that motivation level up when the chore was closer at hand.

I have to run to class. Comment if you want to get me to post on any of the other potential topics..