let's talk about the lack of motivation...

After calling it quits with the sport that we love, finding motivation can be hard. I have only recently retired from college soccer, and I have found that finding any sort of motivation to do anything at all is soooo challenging. I think that because I always had soccer, I was constantly on a time constraint. Naturally, I am the biggest procrastinator, and I think that knowing my free time was limited really helping in my productivity level. However, ever since I quit soccer I have had such a hard time even wanting to get out of bed in the morning.

I know that this can sound like depression and maybe that's a part of it, but I think it really just boils down to the fact that everything in my life up until this point revolved around soccer. Need to get my homework done because if I don't do it now I know I wont do it after the game. I need to do my laundry because if I don't I wont have clean practice clothes for tomorrow. I have to finish my chores because I can't do it over the weekend because we have an away game. I have to get a good grade on my test, because if I don't then coach will get an academic alert. I must go to the gym, because if I don't I will regret it when I don't pass the fitness test. This was how it was, everything in my life always related back to soccer.

Finding the motivation to do the everyday mundane life tasks is HARD. It's normal for these things to be hard, because they have always revolved around something you no longer have. I really think that too often athletes who retire face the reality of this and it is rarely ever talked about. Or, if it is talked about then you are simply told you have depression. I want everyone who is reading this right now to stop. Take a breath. Understand that the things you are feeling are normal. Everyone no matter what level of their sport they competed at, goes through this.