Everyone goes through seasons where you just need a break from the routine you've established in your daily life. But what does it mean if even after you've stepped away from the mundane you just can't pick it back up and keep going?

I've been asking myself this question since I came back from winter break and couldn't find the work ethic that got me through the fall semester. I knew that after about a month of vacation I should be ready to get back to it, but I wasn't.

I went back and as time passed, I felt like I was barely moving and that was okay with me. I did the work, I went to class, but really all I did was look forward to the weekend when I didn't have to think or plow through my work so I could go to sleep.

There were moments where I watched deadlines roll past without batting an eye - something that would have made my fall semester self hyperventilate into a paper bag - and all I could do was wonder what had changed in myself. I managed to make it through the spring semester with my GPA intact, only livening up when I came face to face with dead week, and at the prospect of my friends coming home for the summer.

It wasn't until a few weeks into this summer that the question regarding the lack of motivation popped into my head again. I thought about all of the time I had spent doing nothing with my renewed freedom and thought "why don't I care the way I did before?"

For me, it meant that I'd become so subdued by the day to day patterns of my life that I'd lost sight of what I was working towards, what I want in my life, and who I want to become.

I was hiding under my covers from the harder parts of school, work, and my other goals because I had forgotten the joy that I found in them.

So to my friends who find themselves in similar situations or asking that same question, take a moment to remind yourself of what you want out of your life. Make a list and really think about the steps that are necessary to get you to where you want to be in your life. In every seemingly mundane action, there is purpose. Remember that you are in complete control of the course of your life and that you have the power to change it at any point.

Let your motivation stem from the dreams that are striving towards making reality each day.