Most days, I feel pretty productive. I wake up and get to work on things that are important to me.
But some days are a struggle. Sometimes I’ll wake up late. Then I lounge about, take a long breakfast, and maybe watch the latest episode (or three) of The Daily Show.
By the end of the day, I haven’t done much. At least, not much of substance.
The universal truth about time is that we all manage to keep busy for 24 hours every day. The only thing that separates us is what we keep ourselves busy with.
It doesn’t bother me if I have an occasional off-day—I can’t be perfect—but I notice that if I let it go too many days in a row, it starts to get easier and easier to make “off” the new normal. Then, I have to fight hard to get the drive back; it isn’t easy anymore.
As my friend, Kevin, would say, “You forgot to exercise your get-up-and-go muscle.”
He’s right.
When you push yourself to work on an important challenge, you’re flexing your get-up-and-go muscle. You’re proving to yourself that you have what it takes to carry out something great.
When you do it on a regular basis, you prove that you have the stamina to keep working until the job is done. This is when things start to feel easy. Doing challenging work becomes normal.
When I ran my first marathon, the training schedule was torture. I’d never run more than 10 miles before. But an internal drive to finish kept me going. Now, running 26 miles is just another Sunday morning for me.
Behind your own get-up-and-go muscle is an intense desire. It’s a drive to achieve some sort of vision you see for yourself.
When I’m finding it hard to flex my get-up-and-go muscle, it’s usually because the vision in my head has gotten cloudy, and I can’t see exactly what it is I want anymore. This usually happens for two reasons:
- I let the muscle atrophy by ignoring it. As it withers, so does the vision that fuels it.
- I let other people’s ambitions work their way into my own. Trying to live someone else’s dream is the quickest way to kill my own internal drive.
I think most people who have a strong vision for their lives will tell you it’s almost impossible to be happy unless you’re doing something to help bring that vision to life.
You can ignore it for a while, but the internal nagging to give it the attention it deserves will never truly go away.
If you have a vision for your own life, then you’re probably not going to be satisfied until you do something to pursue it.
And the pursuit of a vision is a long and tiring one… unless you’ve trained your get-up-and-go muscle.
So, a challenge for you: What will you do today to flex your own get-up-and-go muscle? How will you turn one small piece of that vision in your head into reality?
If you feel inclined, share your answer in the comments.
—
Image by: frankh
Yeah. I decided this morning that Monday mornings, I just need to get up and go straight into the office. I have the flexibility to work from home, but I’m finding it’s best to kick the week off right. Go in first thing on Monday, then work out the schedule for the week.
Still at home… grrr.
I think for me one of the biggest ways to launch my “get-up-and-go muscle” is the write everything that’s going on in my head as soon I wake up in the morning. Do yoga, and start my day.
One of my goals is to wake up earlier so I can have calm, peaceful mornings. This morning I made some progress by only pushing the snooze button once (I usually snooze 2x). It’s just a baby step, but it’s progress!
Write! Write! Write! It’s the key to making so much of my vision happen. Too often I put chores and everyone else’s wants and needs ahead of my writing but, like you’re saying, that internal nagging by my visions won’t go away. The writing has to happen or I’ll explode!
Be creative every day. For me, at the moment, that means writing
What a perfectly-timed post, Tyler!
I was on a course in Washington, D.C. last weekend and got back to the UK very early on Wednesday morning. I took Wednesday off, then lay in bed on Thursday to get over the jet-lag. Since it was “the end of the week”, Friday wasn’t much different, then it was the weekend, of course, and to top it off the MayDay Bank Holiday in UK (so Monday off, too).
All of this means I’ve been struggling to get back into work. But work I must (and hard, for things are just beginning to get interesting!), so tomorrow morning, when the country is back on regular time, I will rise, shine, hit the gym for a doubtlessly hard workout after 10 days off and then hit my desk and power through.
After a few more days of the same, we’ll hopefully have a super-strong get-up-and-go muscle working to full capacity. Thanks for the kick up the butt!
What a great way to think about it.
I found myself writing again for the first time in weeks last night, trying to determine what exactly was stopping me from achieving all of my hopes and dreams. Obviously the answer is myself, but why was it I couldn’t even take the first steps in the right direction? I came to the conclusion I put myself under so much pressure, the fear of failure clouded my vision to the point I could no longer see it at all. It easily followed that I was under the illusion that the goals suggested to me by a multitude of others were my own. My get-up-and-go muscle had been unused for so long it was even becoming difficult to enjoy the things I loved!
It always amazes me what a small break in the clouds can do for someone. It may be in the form of a long needed moment of self assurance, a reminder from a loved one, or an email from an ever insightful mentor. But either way, I can never give enough thanks for helping me see that the first and last steps in the path of my dreams have been one leap away, waiting patiently all along.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
~Riana~
I’m going to start writing on my blog right away! Not doing anything else until my post is done. Thanks for the advice!
I totally have this problem, but for me it often comes from being “scattered.”
Today for example – I taught class from 7-9, got home at 10, worked for an hour at my other job, then put in 30 minutes on my site before leaving to take a class from 12-2, then from there to teach my afternoon and evening class. By the time I’ll get home at 9 PM, it’s hard to do any of the creative work my site/blog needs
However, that 30 minutes I spent this morning moved my project forward a tiny bit…
internal nagging IS NOT going away…you’re right. I finally decided to resign from my luxury job for 20 years, because of this nagging inner voice. I am now into my 6-month pursuing my vocation. Not easy but I won’t regret it. Gear up!
[...] to implement from the D.C. course that I really needed to get my butt into gear, which is where Tyler’s post came [...]
Hey Tyler,
This definitely rings true for me. It’s easier to keep doing something once you have some momentum. Unfortunately this means it’s easy to do nothing once you lose your momentum.
When I lose my ‘get up and go’ I find the best idea is to keep doing one little thing at a time. Eventually, your momentum rolls back in and you’re firing on all cylinders before you know it!
Today I really got up and flexed my muscle today! I read a great article yesterday from Scott Belsky about surrounding you with the things that you have done. So I started today writing my tasks on supper sticky notes (they are bigger then normal post-its and lines) using a special system of Mark Forester. After I have done all tasks on one Post-it I will stick them on my wall and do a little artwork out of them.
Thanks for the post Tyler, I like your thoughts on vision and how it can help us drive ourselves forward. It’s certainly a sticking point with me, as my vision at best is a bit cloudy. I’ll spend some time afterwards to really clarify what it is I want to achieve.
Also certain habits don’t help the ‘get-up and go’ muscle. Drinking was a big time killer for me, not so much when I was drinking, but the day after.
Like Shaya, I’m a bit schattered as well. I’ve too many ‘projects’ to really move any of them forward quickly. So I hope to address this through allocating bigger chunks for one activity.
Another thing I’ve notice is that some tinkering is good but not constantly. When you find a good routine don’t change, let it be.
Thanks again Tyler. I always enjoy reading your posts
I cannot believe you just brush of 26 miles as another Sunday morning, lol. Fair play.
I need to flex my g-u-a-g muscle. Even if it’s just to do 20 minutes kettlebell.
[...] Flexing Your Get-Up-And-Go Muscle When you push yourself to work on an important challenge, you’re flexing your get-up-and-go muscle. You’re proving to yourself that you have what it takes to carry out something great. [...]
I pick something that will further a goal and spend “just five minutes” on it.
Once the five minutes are up, of course, nine times out of ten I’m into it enough that I keep going. If I’m not, switching to a different thing-that-will-further-a-goal might do it.
[...] things to improve their live.” The guy’s a motivational genius. I read his article about flexing your get-up-and-go muscle and it made me remember why I do what I [...]
I like the idea of looking at your Motivation and Drive as a muscle.
a friend of mine refers to his as Momentum, invoking the metaphor of Inertia — an object in motion or at rest remains as such unless acted on by an outside force. and sometimes, we have to be that Force ourselves. if our Drive has slowed for some reason, we have to start it up.
this is great article. thanks for sharing!
[...] first learned about the get-up-and-go muscle from Advanced Riskology, another great blog out there that helps you meet your goals. Over time, if we don’t use that [...]