We had three days of rain this week.  You know what’s weird and never occurred to Gavin Newsom?  Lifting weights in the rain doesn’t work.  We are the last state forcibly keeping people out of gyms.  I hate my governor.

When I sat down to write this article, I couldn’t believe this is the fifty second installment of the Coronavirus Edition.  When this started, I thought labelling the “column” this way would be a funny, short-lived diversion. If you had asked me a year ago whether we would still have restrictions on our freedoms I would have told you, you are nuts.  No way Americans will put up with these ridiculous restrictions for a year.  I can’t believe how wrong I was.

I am genuinely shocked by the wide swath of society that supports what has happened and continues to happen. Many of you have posited why this happened and what allows it to continue.  Let me add another possibility.  The endumbening of America has been going on for decades.  Our scientific literacy has sharply declined as has our historical knowledge.

Home arrest was enraging to me at the start, but I could at least understand the logic of “flattening the curve.  Then I started reading and hearing what happened during other pandemics.  Never had the general population been in quarantine, just the infected.  But few people knew their history and fewer wanted to learn it.

As weeks and then months went by, the evidence started to mount.  There was no correlation between infection rates in states that locked down and those that didn’t.  Mask mandates also didn’t correlate to infection rates. Collateral consequences were entirely ignored. Why pay attention to science when SCIENCE! provided the endumbed with reassurance.  

The reaction to this plague took on religious overtones and not the good ones.  There was no redemption, charity towards others, or humility.  It was all about observance, subservience, and damnation for your sins.  Color me an atheist if that’s what you believe.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about staying motivated while the insanity persists. Days are getting longer, it’s about to stay light later, and it’s starting to warm up.  So, our environment is getting friendlier to outdoor activity.

I’m not much for journaling but I sometimes spending some time to evaluate where I am, what I want to accomplish, and what I need to do to achieve my goals.  I find writing down my conclusions is important to the process.  Sometimes I’ll keep a condensed list somewhere it’s easy for me to reference.  It can be the needed kick in the ass to get me moving.

If I have time to read (something beyond your wonderful, snarky comments) then there are a ton of great motivational books.  You all know I’m partial to the Book of St. Goggins.

So fellow Glibs, how do you get or stay motivated?

 

A song that asks the right questions and prescribes the right remedy.