Learn Hardcore Russian: Хорошо бы найти новую мотивацию, чтобы легче переживать будни. - It would be nice to find new motivation to get through weekdays more easily.

хорошо – literally “good”
бы – particle used to express a wish / unreal or hypothetical situation (a kind of “subjunctive” mood)
The verb быть (было бы) is simply omitted, because it’s obvious from the context and very natural in Russian speech.

So:

Хорошо бы найти новую мотивацию…
≈ It would be good (nice) to find new motivation…

The full, more explicit version would be:

Было бы хорошо найти новую мотивацию…

But in everyday Russian, хорошо бы + infinitive is shorter and more natural.

Can I also say Было бы хорошо найти новую мотивацию…? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Было бы хорошо найти новую мотивацию, чтобы легче переживать будни.

The meaning is essentially the same: It would be good to find new motivation so that weekdays are easier to get through.

Stylistic nuance:

Хорошо бы…
- More conversational, natural in everyday speech and informal writing.
- Slightly lighter, more “spoken” feeling.
Было бы хорошо…
- Feels a bit more neutral or formal.
- More common in careful writing or when you want to sound more complete/explicit.

Both are correct; in casual speech, хорошо бы is more typical.

Who is the implied subject of найти? Is it “I”, “we”, or just “someone”?

In Хорошо бы найти новую мотивацию…, найти is an infinitive in an impersonal construction, so the subject is not stated explicitly.

Interpretation depends on context:

Most often in this type of sentence, the implied subject is “I”:
- It would be good (for me) to find new motivation…
It can also mean “we” (for the speaker and their group) if the context suggests that:
- It would be good (for us) to find new motivation…

If you want to be explicit, you can say:

Мне бы хорошо найти новую мотивацию… – It would be good for me to find…
Нам бы хорошо найти новую мотивацию… – It would be good for us to find…

But usually Russian just leaves it implied, and context tells you whether it’s “I” or “we”.

Why is it новую мотивацию and not something like новая мотивация?

Мотивация is a feminine noun:

nominative: новая мотивация – a new motivation (as the subject)
accusative: новую мотивацию – a new motivation (as the object)

In the sentence, мотивацию is the direct object of the verb найти (to find):

найти (что?) новую мотивацию – to find what? a new motivation (ACCUSATIVE)

So:

Новая мотивация помогает. – A new motivation helps. (subject, nominative)
Хорошо бы найти новую мотивацию. – It would be good to find a new motivation. (object, accusative)

Word order is the standard attributive order: adjective + noun

новую мотивацию – new motivation

What exactly does переживать mean here? I thought it meant “to worry”.

Переживать has several related meanings in Russian:

To experience, live through something difficult
- переживать трудные времена – to live through hard times
- переживать кризис – to go through a crisis
To worry, be anxious
- Не переживай! – Don’t worry!
- Она сильно переживает из‑за экзаменов. – She is very worried about her exams.

In this sentence:

чтобы легче переживать будни
The meaning is “to get through / cope with weekdays more easily”, with a nuance of emotional/psychological effort.

So it combines both ideas:

to live through
- to emotionally endure everyday life.

It’s not “to worry” in the narrow sense here; it’s more like “to bear, to cope with, to get through.”

Why is it переживать (imperfective) and not пережить (perfective)?

Aspect choice is important:

переживать – imperfective: ongoing, repeated, or process
пережить – perfective: one-time, completed event

In легче переживать будни, the idea is about a repeated, regular process:

to get through weekdays more easily (week after week, generally)

That’s why the imperfective is used:

переживать будни – to constantly/regularly go through weekdays.

If you said пережить будни, it would sound like a one-time survival of a specific group of weekdays (e.g. “to survive these particular few days”), which is not the idea here.

What does будни mean exactly? Is it the same as “weekdays”?

Будни is a plural noun that literally means “workdays / weekdays / ordinary days of routine life”.

Nuances:

It usually contrasts with выходные (days off, weekends) or праздники (holidays).
It carries a feeling of routine, everyday life, often a bit dull or tiring.

So:

будни – weekdays, daily grind, the routine part of life
переживать будни – to get through the everyday grind

You generally use будни in the plural only in this meaning:

В будни я встаю в шесть утра. – On weekdays I get up at six.
Сложно переживать серые будни. – It’s hard to get through the dull everyday life.

How does чтобы work in this sentence? Is it “in order to”?

Yes, here чтобы introduces a purpose clause, similar to:

in order to
so that

The structure:

Хорошо бы найти новую мотивацию, чтобы легче переживать будни.
– It would be good to find new motivation in order to get through weekdays more easily.

So:

чтобы + infinitive (here: переживать) expresses purpose.

You could also phrase it with a finite verb:

…чтобы будни легче переживались.
– so that weekdays would be easier to get through.

But чтобы + infinitive is shorter and more natural in many modern contexts when the subject is the same (you).

Why is it легче переживать будни and not переживать будни легче?

Both word orders are grammatically correct, but they have slightly different emphasis.

чтобы легче переживать будни (original)
- Focus on легче (“more easily”).
- This flows very naturally: in order to more easily get through weekdays.
чтобы переживать будни легче
- Slightly more emphasis on будни (“the weekdays”).
- Sounds a bit more bookish or marked in this specific phrase.

In everyday speech, adverb + verb + object (легче переживать будни) is smoother and more typical.
The other order is possible, but might sound less natural in this particular sentence.

Are there more colloquial or alternative ways to say this sentence?

Yes, you can keep the same idea but phrase it differently. Some natural alternatives:

Slightly more colloquial:
- Неплохо бы найти новую мотивацию, чтобы легче переживать будни.
  (It wouldn’t be bad to find new motivation to get through weekdays more easily.)
A bit more emotional:
- Хотелось бы найти новую мотивацию, чтобы легче переживать будни.
  (I’d like to find new motivation so that weekdays are easier to get through.)
Simpler, more direct:
- Хорошо бы найти новую мотивацию, чтобы легче переносить будни.
  (переносить = to bear/endure; similar meaning here)

All of these are natural. The original version is already very idiomatic and sounds like something a native speaker might say about feeling tired of everyday life.