Going for it

Our son, Caleb, will be a freshman at North High next year. He wants to play football, so he's been going to summer conditioning. In fact, he actually did this last year too, as an 8th grader. I have been amazed that he is getting up at 7 a.m. or earlier so he can ride his bicycle the 2 miles to North and be on time. No one is waking him up, he's doing it all on his own.

His friend, who I'll call Joe, doesn't have that same kind of drive. He's had a hard time getting up for conditioning. The two have played football together a number of years, and I think Joe wants to make the team. He's not a morning person. Caleb has tried giving him a wake-up call, but he sleeps through it. Joe's mom goes to work early, so she's not available. He's made it to conditioning when he's had a friend sleep over and they've gone together. Except the time that Caleb stayed the night. Then they both overslept and missed it.

I told Caleb that Joe's idea of enlisting his friends to help him get to conditioning is a good one. If he's having trouble, he needs to figure out ways that will help him succeed. However, there comes a point where he is going to have to find the motivation internally and make it happen.

And I thought of myself. In my writing, I have resembled Joe much more than Caleb. I've let myself get sidetracked, off focus. I've enlisted friends to help, mainly my small group sisters and my running buddy, Kristen. But they can't make me choose to stay at the computer when I feel like running upstairs for a snack. They can't make me stop checking email and facebook when I'm stuck on a story. They can't make me keep working when I decide to take a break and go to the pool for the the rest of the afternoon.

At some point, the motivation is going to have to come from within. Right now, I'm working on a special edition of the Current for our church's 20th anniversary, a project that I lobbied for last fall. I've gotten the go-ahead to use color, and eight pages instead of the usual four. I had the idea for the feature article over a year ago. I interviewed my subjects, and let my notes sit for over two weeks. I forced myself to write the story last week. The rough draft's done, but I have yet to re-visit it. The whole issue needs to be finished in early August. We have swim team championships, a rafting trip, a four-wheeling trip to Colorado, and a synchronized swimming show scheduled before then.

Maybe I need to talk to Caleb and see how I can make this happen.