Today I woke up from being blinded by sunlight which is a rarity for Amsterdam. The birds were singing, fresh air was filling the room ever so gently… What a perfect day, it seemed – I had a perfect plan of writing a paper for a couple of hours, attending a lecture and then cooking a healthy dinner. But something simply did not feel right. Getting up became a chore, cooking breakfast - a nuisance and working seemed damn near impossible. My motivation was probably out chirping away with the birds outside and I felt completely abandoned. All of a sudden, a deadline in 3 days did not seem close enough to worry about, the lecture could be watched in recording and at a double speed and take-away seemed more and more plausible. But the worst out of it all was that I was not just taking a mental health day or a well-deserved break. I knew that I would just spend the day staring at the ceiling and feeling useless, yet unable to do anything nonetheless.
Days like this happen to the best of us and that is important to remember – I was certainly not the only one who was feeling that way that day. Cliché, yes, but that does not make it any less true. After feeling sorry for myself for a couple of hours (crucial step sometimes too), I got up and looked around. A couple of things instantly popped up that need to get done. Before I could get overwhelmed, I told myself that even if the only thing I do today is make my bed, I would do more than I thought I could. This thought almost always helps me to get out of a spiral like this. So, this is exactly what I did – I made my bed. Already, I felt better. Not necessarily because I made my bed and made it look nice and tidy. But rather because I defied the odds. On the day when I felt like it is impossible to do anything, I found a possible thing to do. And after the first thing was out of the way, the question of how impossible was everything else that I have to do became less daunting.
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