Have you been feeling unmotivated, stagnant, or bored recently? Is there a sense that your days are repetitive or routine?

These emotions tend to have something in common: passivity. We’re waiting for something to happen, something to change, something to move us forward in our lives or relationships. Life seems to be happening around us, but we can’t seem to get on the forward-moving track we’d like to be on. Therefore, we live day to day in passive repetition.

What keeps us motivated to carry on the daily repetition? Having things to look forward to: vacations, holidays, days off from work, weekends, promotions, a big event coming up, etc. When feeling stagnant, it’s easy to pass off the majority of our days, weeks, months, or even years while looking toward significant “checkpoints.”

Checkpoints are the events that keep us motivated through the repetitive or mundane moments in our lives. For example, how often have we thought along the lines of, “if I can just can through the next few weeks of work, I’ll have a vacation”?

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