2020 and the Battle for Motivation

I’ve been finding it really hard to find the motivation to write lately.  While I love sharing interesting experiences in South Australia (and there’s certainly no shortage of adventures to write about), it seems that 2020 has finally gotten the better of me.

For most of this year, I have managed to stay relatively positive despite a health scare and the remarkable amount of crap this year has thrown at the world.  I even learned to be more grateful.  But the past few weeks have been difficult. 

As a US Citizen, I am still keenly interested in the US election (and yes, I did vote), so watching this particularly acrimonious election cycle has been unsettling.  On top of that there’s the declining COVID situation in the States; watching from the safety of South Australia it honestly seems like they’ve just given up.

Like many people, I haven’t been able to see my family as planned this year.  As the situation in the US continues to worsen, my slim hopes of seeing family – including my 96-year-old grandparents – before 2022 are eroding.   

Normally, I would deal with my concerns by running.  Running helps me manage my stress and my mood; it keeps me mentally and physically healthy, gets me outside on a regular basis, and helps me sleep well.  For so long, being a regular runner (even if I’m not as fast as I used to be) has been part of my identity.  So, with everything 2020 has thrown at us, I find it especially difficult that I have been unable to run for months.

I’ve had “runner’s knee” or ITB Syndrome for a while now (pain on the outside of the knee from tendons and connective tissue in the leg getting tight and rubbing over bone).  It’s a common overuse injury and I’ve followed all the recommendations from running experts and my physio.  Despite this, after several months, it became apparent that I was not getting better. 

I’m now seeing a sports doctor and a podiatrist.  The recovery has been slow and frustrating, and it feels like I take two steps forward then one step back.  I’ve had to take the last three weeks completely off from running and currently my only cardio option is swimming.

It’s not all been doom and gloom.  I have gone on a few adventures in the past few months; I even ticked a few items off my SA bucket list and list of things to do after the pandemic.  However, because the thing I normally rely on to set my schedule and keep me happy has been taken away I have found it difficult to muster the motivation to sit down and turn my thoughts about these adventures into words on the digital page to share with you.

I know that setting a routine to write helps get the words flowing, and sometimes the answer is as simple as restarting.  Hopefully, this post will be the one that helps me get writing again. 

What do you do when you get stuck for motivation or get writer’s block?