Yesterday was a super weird day. We decided we were going to go get a hike in because the weather was nice and cool. And it went downhill from there.

We got out on the road in plenty of time and everything was great. We got to the parking lot of the trailhead of a trail that we hadn’t hiked before, and noticed immediately that of the 15 or so cars that were scattered around the parking lot , we were the only ones not mountain biking.

We decided to go ahead and hike in any way but before we could get the backpacks out of the car, somehow, and I still haven’t figured out this part yet, the car doors locked and we shut the doors with the car keys in the car. Now, how the doors got locked is beyond me. I have gone through every scenario in my head and I can’t figure it out.

So my wife tried her cell phone in the only number we could reach was 911. Thankfully the person on the other end was pretty cool about it and got a hold of someone to come out and unlock our car. So after sitting there and waiting for an hour for him to arrive and then giving him $157 to be there for 3 minutes, we decided to go ahead and hike. However there were so many mountain bikes out on the trail it didn’t make us feel very uncomfortable walking around tight blind corners never knowing if there was a mountain bike flying at you at 30 miles an hour. So after about a half a mile we turned around and went back to the car and decided to go find a different trail.

Now, when you decide to go hiking in Central Oregon in the summer time, you know you’re going to run into a lot of people. This is the hiking and mountain biking Mecca. But when we pulled into this parking lot it was pretty obvious that this was a very well-traveled touristy trail. But we headed off anyway because we wanted to get a hike in. And we made it about a mile out and realized that the trail was not challenging, it was too flat, it was boring… in other words it was made for tourists.

So we went back to the car.

And my wife and I both had the same exact kind of feeling in that we were motivated to do something, but we really didn’t care what. We were just numb. We didn’t want to stop, but we didn’t really want to try again… We have sort of become apathetic in the last four or five days. And it’s not like we don’t want to do anything it’s just that we can’t decide what we want to do. I think Covid lock downs and isolation is going to take its toll on anybody no matter how strong-minded you are, and truthfully we’ve not had any real negative effects on our life aside from kind of a lot of boredom. So, it’s not surprising that it’s catching up to us.

So how do you navigate your motivation when you want to do something but you’re just bored out of your mind because it’s the same old same old?

But here’s the thing I figured out about life. As I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “fake it till you make it.” That applies to everything. It really does. Everything that you experience will snowball if you allow it. It’s already been proven that the simple act of smiling will make you happier. So if you’re not happy just smile and eventually you get happy is the theory. And I got to tell you it’s pretty true.

But it will Snowball the other way too. If you tell yourself you’re bored you’re just going to be more bored. If you tell yourself you’re tired, guess what?

So when we got home yesterday after really not accomplishing much of anything other than blowing $157, I told myself that I was not going to just vegetate all day long. And I motivated and I got myself into the workout. And I worked out pretty hard. I didn’t want to but I did it. And so did my wife. She didn’t really want to, but she did it. And the act of doing it, is what changed our attitude for the day.

So I don’t know what’s on tap for today. I’m kind of thinking maybe we should do SOMETHING but we’ll see.

Tomorrow is Monday. Goals for the week include:

• Sweating more
• More resistance training
• 3 pounds of weight loss (Sitting at 215 as of this writing) by Saturday next.

Peace