Dear LPG,

I think that what we have all been through over the past year is responsible for many things, but in spite of all the time we have had to ourselves, every one of the friends that I and my telephone have traversed the last pandemic-ridden year with will agree that there is no one on earth that has made the journey without being affected in many ways.

The words frustration, loneliness, inactivity, anger, sadness, mental surrender, apathy and lethargy are just a few that describe the way that each of our lives have been disturbed, even though most of my friends are pensioners who have had the advantage that we have not had to worry any more than usual about one of the two most fundamental aspects of the whole affair that is most affecting the rest of the community.  The one thing that is most likely not to have altered as radically for most pensioners is their income stream. 

Like every other age-group that has been locked down for so long, we pensioners have had many challenges to face and the one that is really getting to me is a lack of self-motivation.  I wonder how many of us who don’t have to work find ourselves getting up later, vegging out in front of the telly and eating too much.   How many things did you promise to do while you were stuck at home? Going through your cupboards, learning something new, getting back to a neglected hobby, writing your memoirs; be they large or small, I wonder just how many of the things that you promised yourself you would do at the beginning of lockdown are still in the very early planning stages.   

Apart from wanting to remind readers that it is not all over yet and there is still time to make a start on transforming one of those projects that is still just a plan at the back of your mind into something a little more tangible, this might be a time to work out just what motivates you.

I, like so many who don’t have to work from home or help the little ones with their online schooling all day, have done a bit of thinking about all the different ways that we can work towards getting going again and I found one solution on the internet.  Perhaps a bit of advice about what actually triggers your motivational juices might help.

I have found some online advice on the subject, and a few quizzes designed to steer you in the right direction or at least get you thinking about it and, even though the vast majority of us older people are no longer looking to change the world, having had a go myself I thought I would share them with my fellow LPG readers.

Are they accurate? I have my doubts but they managed to motivate me enough to write this message... 

AF, Crofton Park

As promised, AF shares some online quizzes to help us gauge our own motivational levels…

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… and also leaves us a little advice on the subject….

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