#2 For the Love of the game

So much of what makes you a powerhouse is when you are able to fall in love with the game. It’s one thing when you live for achievement, burn with passion for a cause, but what about when all of those fail you? If you were to simply do something because that thing is fun, what would you do?I understand that not every process in life is going to be your passion project, but why don’t we focus on the love of the game? I think a lot of it is because we misunderstand discipline. Yes, discipline is the ability to be brutally consistent, but we still have to pick something to be disciplined to, right? We discipline ourselves to reading, to writing, to exercise, and so on, but eventually we fizzle out if we don’t take the time to nurture our passion. 

I wrote about this idea in an earlier post about doing hard things, and I think it applies here. Instead of disciplining ourselves by simply “hacking it,” we need to have a commitment-building period. We need to start things up by developing our love of it. Did you know that I have actually come to enjoy my morning cold shower? Yes, I have actually reached a point where I find it relaxing. I get that “ahh” feeling when the temperature suddenly shifts. It feels like a cool breeze on a hot day. Especially in the morning, it really gets me going for the day. 

But this idea doesn’t just apply to the upstart. If you find your motivation fizzling out, you need to take some time to rekindle your flame. American author zig ziglar is quoted for saying “Inspiration doesn’t last, but neither does bathing. That’s why it’s recommended daily.” I think we need to take some time to regularly motivate ourselves to chase after the things we want most. This may mean you need to take some time and really get to know what that is. What gets you out of bed in the morning? When did you last feel the fire in your soul? Examine it and learn how to tap into it. In due time, you will be well on your way to being a beast of your own. 

But it takes a brief period of waxing and waning, nurturing the flame of your spirit, to truly become a tough warrior. Although it is true that some periods simply provide us with no rest, (and I’ll go into how to work with those situations in later posts,) many times we have the ability to cut ourselves a little slack to catch up with ourselves. We may slow down at work, spreading ourselves out over our time frame instead of rushing to get things done. We might say no to a few social events to take some time to ourselves. It may not be easy, but a brief slow-down is usually an option. 

And once you rekindle your flame, it will be as if you never left! The quality of your life will make it worth the cost. Because even the most passionate project can burn to a crisp if you lose sight of your fire. And I’m not just talking about some intellectual answer to an interview on the nature of your work. You need to taste your motivation, let it course through your body and bring you back to life. At any given moment, I describe to you without a moment’s hesitation why I write these blogs. But did you know that I actually have dry spells? Who would have guessed that writing six days a week would eventually wear on me? (I actually had a little dry spell in the middle of the “catching your wins” series. Go back and read them and you’ll see the pivot where I finally woke up. It’s pretty neat!) That’s why I don’t post, write, or check on the blog on sundays. You need one day to put it all aside, to make sure the passion doesn’t die out. 

But up until this point, I have been assuming that you have found your passion in the first place. What if you haven’t? What if you have things you must do? Well, first off, I’d challenge that idea. Yes, we must all pay our taxes, change the oil in our cars, and take the dog for a walk. Those things will not change. But how often do we play with how those things get done? How often do we take charge of the experience? I’d venture to say not often enough. We all say we must exercise, but we jump on the boring, painful treadmill instead of getting some friends together to go hiking or play pickleball. We have to walk the dog, but we go on the same boring route around the same dang block. We so often relinquish ownership of our lives and give into complacency. And for it, we squander a lot of things that could be enjoyable and simply settle for misery. 

And because we take so much of life lying down, we begin to resent it. And we just suck it up because we think that’s what we’re supposed to do. If we just started to take back ownership of our lives, I think we would enjoy far more of our processes. Take me, for example. If you were to ask anyone that knows me about my biggest quirk, it would be my obsession with hydration. At one point, I was drinking a gallon of water a day! What started as a joke developed into a habit. It has waxed and waned through various seasons of life, but I have more-or-less stuck with it for years. And part of the reason for my persistence, as silly as it sounds, is because I have toyed with the process. 

I tried carrying around a full gallon bottle, a half gallon bottle, a 12-ounce mini bottle. I toyed around with when I found myself able to remember to hydrate, and how my body responded to different methodologies. It sounds silly, I know, but it worked! For every season of my life, I have gotten myself into a hydration-rhythm. And this is why I believe we can come to live our lives for the love of the game. Why it seems so obvious to me that we could, in fact, love more of our lives if we just learned to care about them more. 

Start by examining the things you could, technically, change in your everyday life. Even if it’s inconvenient, or an obvious “no,” list those things out. Could you take a different route home from work? Could you listen to something different during the commute? Could you change the color of your socks or shoes? Could you eat different food or make your coffee a different way? And here’s where the fun begins: once you have that list made, ask yourself this question: which do I prefer? Which works best for me? 

I switch up my route home all the time. Sometimes it will even add an extra 5-10 minutes to my commute. But you know what? I’m all the happier for it. We rarely stop to ask ourselves what would make our situation enjoyable, never stop to care about our preferences. We simply assume that the “meh” is an essential part of life. I actually enjoy my commute-on my way into work. It’s time for my audiobooks. On the way home, it’s the time I get to enjoy my music. We simply take no time to nurture the process. We take no time to live for the love of the game. 

So take some time this week to study your process. Ask yourself if you like even half of it. Maybe you don’t like something about it. Maybe something needs to change. Either way, I pray you begin to nurture the passion for your life, learning to turn the worst parts of your day into your best. 

Until next time

May Peace be your guide.