If you’ve ever found your motivation halfway through a task you didn’t want to begin, perhaps you’ve also experienced a corollary dynamic: Energy comes from freshening up.
Morning showers are the obvious example. There’s a difference between taking one to not feel dirty, and taking one to feel clean. The former is a hygiene measure in the most literal sense. The latter is an act of empowerment.
But freshening up can happen in many ways, and it is in its smallest forms that doing so is underrated. Switching your dirty water glass for a new one, for example. Combing your hair mid-day. Changing your t-shirt, boxer shorts, or entire outfit when you return sweaty from a trip to the store.
Freshening up can, and should, happen all the time, not just because it’ll rebalance your energy levels throughout the day, but because its effects quickly accumulate. Sure, I can do one of the above three examples and salvage a little bit of spirit—or I can do all of them and greatly up my vigor.
Wash your face, wipe your keyboard, and drink from a clean cup. Freshening up makes a bigger difference than you realize—until you realize how much of a difference it can make.