Was It Really Lack of Motivation?

Understanding Hidden Barriers to Action

Photo by Eli Prater on Unsplash

I thought I’d lost my motivation for doing this fall. All I wanted was to stay home, read cozy mysteries on my Kindle, and play games on my iPhone; everything else was a chore and an effort. My goals fell by the wayside, and I raged at myself for procrastinating. This article was going to be about re-energizing that motivation.

I tried to blame it on many things, but that wasn’t helpful. Besides, life was good. A second great-granddaughter was on the way, and I’d recently been on two trips. The newsletter was doing well. I was healthy, mostly independent, and had many tools to make a comfortable life for myself. I didn’t understand.

I read that a lack of energy and enthusiasm could be the brain's natural response and behavior to external adversity, leading to challenging situations. Experts say one’s natural response won’t change if the problem doesn't. However, people naturally tend to sit, wait, and feel motivated to jump back into their lives, and it doesn’t seem to work that way. OK!

The article “Ready For Your Midlife Moment" brought a new perspective, though. The author discussed seven subtle shifts in thinking that indicate a person may be ready to stop playing small and start living boldly. I’m 86; maybe I was having a late-life moment.

The article "The Unscratched Itch" furthered that perspective. The author discussed being dissatisfied with life and not understanding why—at least, that’s the message I took from it.

She said

I believe I’m in a process of gathering - gathering my spirit and my wits, gathering my physical vitality and my microbiome, gathering my people and my vocation, gathering all that is most important to me to hold close.

As these things often do, this sense of gathering comes after a period of loss and upheaval that lasted a few years and left me feeling more drained than I realized until I had to sit on the couch and watch Netflix for about a year.

Those two articles made so much sense. My life changed dramatically over the past four years. I was emotionally and physically drained.

I began to reconsider. Was my so-called lack of motivation more about a natural part of healing - gathering resources and making subtle shifts? It made sense!

I’ve been more motivated the last few days - that I know. Time will tell if I’m on to something.

I’d love it if you could share the Aging Well newsletter with others. I want to share the lessons I’ve learned through my years of life and caregiving with as many people as possible. More than anything, I want to continue expanding our community of readers.

So please forward this email to a friend and invite them to join us. They can subscribe here:

Thank you so much for being part of the Aging Well community.

If you want to contribute to my work, consider donating to the Alzheimer's Association. This link takes you to their website. The choice is yours.  

Janice Walton is a psychologist, widow, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and writer. Her book Aging Well: 30 Lessons for Making the Most of Your Later Years is available on Amazon, and she has written articles for Substack.