Sigh, Go Birds: Coping with Another Boring Super Bowl
I know I'm supposed to appreciate Kansas City's dynasty. BUTIDONTWANNA.
Happy last week of January.
Does the last week of the first month always feel this weird, or am I particularly empty from grieving the sudden loss of my Buffalo Bills? Every week James Cook and Josh Allen gave us something fun to break up the monotony. Now we’re left with the most monotonous Super Bowl scenario of all: Another round of Eagles vs. Chiefs.
Go Birds? Sigh. Go Birds.
Yes, I know we should be grateful to witness some of the best NFL football ever played with this Chiefs team. But we all have plenty of real life issues we have to be way too mature about these days. I don’t care how good the Chiefs are, I’m bored and I wanted the Bills in the Super Bowl. I at least would’ve settled with Jayden Daniels and the Commanders.
Thanks.
Maybe the last week of January is tough because you’ve been putting in the work, and yet there’s still nothing but work in the foreseeable future. You’re crushing your New Year’s resolutions. You just completed a tough Q2 project (yes I just googled “Where are we in the fiscal year?”). You’ve logged some serious mileage to kick off your spring marathon training.
Great job kid, keep going.
This is the moment in time where the novelty of the new year wears off, and we’re left to grapple with it all for two more cold, slow months. If you’re feeling like this, congratulations: The initial excitement of your goal-setting has worn off because this is who you are becoming now.
The once far away noun of a goal has become a live-action verb. You didn’t set out to achieve your goal just to accomplish the one-off achievement; you wanted to be the type of day-to-day person who lives life like that goal accomplisher.
You are becoming!
Novelty and excitement are fantastic perks of being alive, but by definition they don’t last forever. You aren’t doing anything wrong if your motivation is waning this last week of January; motivation is fleeting. You used the motivation from novelty and excitement to kickstart your goal, and now that’s become such a frequent behavior in your life that you’re officially used to it.
That’s exactly what you hoped would happen.
“Life is so subtle that sometimes you barely notice yourself walking through the doors you once prayed would open” - Unknown
If you’re feeling unmotivated this week, and if all the winter still left feels daunting, maybe a mindset shift is in order. Instead of beating ourselves up for losing excitement or motivation, what if we accepted that these feelings and resources aren’t meant to stay with us through the entire cycle of completing a goal or changing our lives in some way?
What if we recognized and celebrated the boring, predictability of February and March instead of wishing they were something else?
This applies to everything but the Super Bowl. You’re allowed to wish that would’ve been less predictable.