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I built this sentence:
"I was going to go for a run after waking up from the nap, but I didn't feel willing."
and my English teacher said I should use "...didn't feel motivated" or "...didn't feel up to"
he said the word willing is awkward there. I looked up willing in dictionary and it says something like: "ready, eager, or prepared to do something" so what is wrong with "didn't feel willing"?
An idiomatic way to say this would be:
I had planned to go for a walk after my nap but when I woke up, I didn't feel like it.
As gotube wrote, we don't "feel willing". Rather, we are willing or we aren't willing to do something. And importantly, that something is what someone else has asked us to do or told us to do, or is something expected of us. We don't use the word willing in connection with our own plans, intentions, or desires.
I need a volunteer to work the late shift on Saturday. Anybody willing?
-- If you're paying double-time, I'm willing.
Your teacher is right.
The reason is that "willing" doesn't correlate with "feel". There's at least two common meanings of "feel", and neither applies to "willing".
First, "willing" isn't a word about emotions. It isn't something you can decide about based on your feelings. Either you have the will to do something, or you do not. If you want to do something, you are willing. Wanting to do something isn't an emotion, so neither is "willing".
The other sense of "feel" is to express opinions. Whether you are willing is not something you can have an opinion about either. It's a fact that you know about yourself. It's not something you can guess at.
To "feel like doing something" is another way of saying to "be willing", but "feeling willing" doesn't make sense.
