Hub World – Motivation

Hub World – Motivation (February)

Welcome back to Hub World!

This month, we turned the Safe In Our World spotlight on to the topic of motivation. What strikes me most about the word ‘motivation’ is that it can carry so many different meanings, depending on the individual and what it means to them to be motivated. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of motivation? Is it tied to your career, the day-to-day, or maybe your social life? Ultimately, motivation is a constant – it’s what drives us to do pretty much anything. But, because everyone views motivation differently, it can be difficult to gauge or feel a sense of motivation if your view is based on another persons perceived success (as a result of seemingly limitless motivation juice).

Motivation is not directly tied to material success – we should congratulate ourselves more for the little things. You got out of bed today? Great! You spent some time with friends or loved ones? Amazing! If you can keep going through the day-to-day, no matter how mundane the task, you are motivated by something.

To get myself motivated, I try and immerse myself as much as possible in something – anything that drives my interest and will feed into other areas of my life, because it makes me happy to do so. Be that playing through Persona 5 Strikers, which is taking me on a wonderfully vibrant tour of Japan, or immersing myself in Final Fantasy XIV Online in order to fuel my passion at work.

Let’s take a look at all of the different ways other members of the Safe In Our World community keep themselves, and each other, motivated!

Antonela Pounder

Over the past year, keeping the mind active and staying motivated has been more important than ever. I’ve spent my spare time looking for ways to improve in my career, engaged in arts and crafts, had regular online gaming sessions with friends, set DIY projects (even if it’s only a small project to rearrange the stuff in our house) and began planning future trips for when we can travel the world safely again. These might be small things, but they have really helped to keep me motivated over the past 11 months.

Richard Lee Breslin

It can be difficult to keep yourself motivated at times and I can forget how those around me offer inspiration on a daily basis.

Whether it’s family or friends, sometimes it can be forgotten that you have people who would love the world for you if they could. Sometimes it can be easy to take that love for granted and I’ve been guilty of that myself.

Whether it’s loved ones, a friend that you game with, or a social media buddy. Inspiration and motivation can often be right under our noses, even if we don’t know it. Sometimes I have to take a step back to realise how amazing family and friends can be.

Sarah Sorrell

So staying motivated whilst working from home all day everyday is a challenge. I find little rewards really help me, for example after a certain amount of work that I need to get done I treat myself to 10-15 minutes of selfcare and do something I enjoy. This could be painting my nails, reading a few pages of my book, or phoning a friend just to escape for few minutes and re-charge my batteries. Especially in the winter, the days are long so it’s important to break them down into manageable sections and celebrate what you have achieved each day – that may be something big or small, or just even getting though the day.

Rosie Taylor

I’ve found that my motivation has been a rollercoaster throughout the pandemic, so I try to work with what I’ve got. Surrounding myself with positive and encouraging people has helped me find my own ways to bring myself out of a motivation-less hole. The main thing I do is try to set lots of small easy goals, rather than big ones; breaking down big tasks makes me feel more accomplished and means I can celebrate little victories, which spur me on to keep going.

Matt Murphy

I was a child of the ZX Spectrum era, and so Way of the Exploding Fist and Saboteur were my Persona 5 Strikers and Dying Light 2, as I saved my pocket money to buy the latest cassette games.  But my love for games never waned over the years even if my access did, as work and now kids became my primary focus.  I have a son who is 5 and a daughter aged 3, and so they aren’t quite ready to outwit mummy and daddy at Among Us just yet.  But I’ve started to use video games as another way to have fun with my children during lockdown at the weekend when we have a spare hour – especially given the creative challenges facing the social secretary for two small children on a Saturday!  Yeah it’s not the latest AAA, but my son loves it when we both play the Lego Movie game together.  It focuses him on teamwork, fine motor skills, problem solving and the fact that you can’t always win – a pretty cool life lesson if you ask me.  It’s great for our souls in these stressful times and as long as he can be Emmet then everything is awesome.

Emma Withington is a freelance writer and PR account executive at Bastion who has worked on campaigns for a variety of titles, including Control and Final Fantasy XIV: Online.

She is currently spending time focusing on the wider community and how she can help others through her personal journey with mental health.

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