I've been lacking my motivation to wake up on a morning lately. I still do, of course, but my motivation has been knocked a little in the past few months of general crappiness. I do, however, wake up on a morning so I can embrace the day (as cheesy and cliché as that sounds). Nothing drives me more than passion to succeed and try new things, which is why I pry myself out of my bed.

So, my question to you is: What motivates you to get up and live the day? Is it simply to go to work or do you have some kind of ultimate goal?

I have two reasons. The first reason is my daughter, who just turned 6 years old. The other reason is my son, who will be 5 years old in May. Both reasons are equal in priceless value to myself. They are why I wake up in the morning, why I scream, cry, laugh, and continue living. They are my everything. And when I think of how easily they could be taken from me...my world falls apart and I have to hold them close to me or watch them sleep to remind myself I still have them.

I favor joy through the mundane:

bathroom then

tea.

Well, it depends for me. For the moment, it's for the weather. I'm in Southern California, so no snow, but we do get cold (or what is cold in Southern California, living here all my life, it IS cold). I get up to enjoy the coolness of the air, and if the day is right, the grey clouds in the sky.


During the summer, it's a whole other story, I get up in the morning because it's too hot to stay in bed


But, really, I have no real "motivation" other than to live the best I can at the moment, which isn't much. I guess I get up every day to try to better my life in any way I can, in one aspect or another.

Food.
Besides that - staying to long means loosing good part of day, not getting things done and being frustrated about it.

I usually don't get up in the morning. Since I became a carer for my Dad unless there is a reason (like some kind of medical appointment, like there was today and yesterday) I tend to stay in bed until my sister has gone to work at midday. She is one of the most miserable "morning" people on the planet and she always tries to start arguments with me in the AM... I stay out of her way.

I'm also a night owl and am usually up until 3am, sometimes later if my insomnia is acting up... I usually still get eight hours of sleep regardless of when I finally drop off.

Days like today are quite difficult for me as I don't feel as if I've been to sleep and I was up at 8am after retiring at around midnight. It's really weird... I feel drained and cranky if I sleep from midnight to 8am, but I'm fine if it's 3am to 11am. I must have a weird set of circadian rhythms or something

I'm going to echo Midi and say my kids and my cat. No matter how miserable life is right now or how much I want to fall apart, I can't. I have lives that depend on my well being. That is why I get up in the mourning.

I get up in the morning just to survive. Without a job and the wage I become inactive and stay in bed. I live in a wellfare state, but it would be not enough to go out for dancing or live an active live. If I would stay in bed I would die within a few years fat and crippled.

I'm pretty much on the same page... like the bumper sticker says... nice boots are expensive. Somebody has got to sit at my desk and make sure computers turn on... unfortunately my plant won't let the office workers onto the graveyard shift... so out of bed in the morning I go.

As for the other reasons I do it... it is nice to come home to beautiful woman and some rather bouncy children, providing a life for them, that's better then they would have without me; keeps me an AM person. even if I don't really wake up till around noon. (but that's what coffee is for)

Because I share my space with animals and plants that depends on me. If I were alone, I would´t bother at all.

I get up every morning because I'm curious to see what new thing the day will bring. If it's something good, I don't want to miss it. If it's something bad, I want to meet it head on and beat it down. And then do a little victory dance with my arms held high. Woot. Woot.

-- Nephele

It seems like the reason I wake up was errands like shower, makeup, and even work on my linux machine. Then I had to meet someone at the door, make up the schedule for today, go to support groups for anger and other mental issues, and take time out for shopping and other errands before relaxing at home.

I seldom get out of bed before noon. Since I retired I do what I like the best, staying up till the wee hours of the morning and sleeping in as long as I like. I can get up in the morning if I have to work but fortunately the AM shift I work is only 2 days a month.

I would have to quit if it was more often

Work. As much as I hate it sometimes, you just cannot decide one day that you're not getting up today. When I still went to school that was a bit different, and I would sometimes miss hours, when I felt too awful to get up. But it's different with job, because I know I need it to survive and I know how hard it is for me to get another one.

Besides, I'm feeling alright-ish at the moment, so that's probably it, as well. And, I started paying attention to making my diet richer in iron and that also helps with feeling overall less tired.

Some nice responses here. On living in the moment: I tend to be very impulsive and let's say... Unpredictable at times. There's nothing like wandering astray from your original destination to check something out. I get up sometimes hoping that things will get better for me, too.

Today I got up genuinely crapping myself that the world might actually end. I mean, the night before I was shaky as hell but as soon as I woke up, I just collected myself and decided "If this is the last day, I'd better make the best of it!" instead of moping in the self-loathing attitude I seem to have acquired recently.