Find your parks

When I was young, I used to take the family dog for a walk.  On the way to the park, the dog strained at the leash, pulling me forward.  On the way home it was a different story.  The dog walked slowly, dragging her limbs, hanging behind me.  She loved the park.  She was motivated by going there, and reluctant to come back.

We all have an inner dog that knows what it loves to do.  We all have our own version of the park, our motivational place.  On our way there, we don’t need encouraging.  On our way back, we feel sad and drag our feet.

When we are doing what we like to do, we feel that life is free, fun, flowing, interesting.  When we are doing what we don’t like to do, we feel constricted, unpleasant, blocked.

Of course life involves difficult tasks. But if we are too hard on ourselves, life gets drained of any pleasure, and we get depressed. Sometimes we need to bring motivation back into our lives by reintroducing things that are genuinely to our taste.

Notice, today, what you enjoy. Notice where your parks seem to be, the places, people and things you run to happily, because you like them.