What is your motive?
Motivation is a dirty word. Rather, it’s a word with a dirty little secret. If you think about it, it is a secret that a lot of people like me would rather you didn’t know. I caught myself in the act of falling for this secret this very morning. I’ve written about this before. I complain that I have lollygagged away the morning and got absolutely nothing done.
Today, I caught myself saying that I just didn’t feel motivated to do anything. It was one of those moments where I had to ask if I actually said that out loud.
Get that. Once more. “I don’t feel motivated to do anything.”
What does that even mean? That in order to do something, I have to first get up the motivation to do it?
Does it mean I’m lazy? Well, I am, but that has nothing to do with the situation.
Does it mean I have nothing to do? Well, even for me, that sounds ridiculous. There is always something to do. Otherwise, why would David Allen have written Getting Things Done.
We Don’t Need No Stinking Motivational Techniques
You’ve read all kinds of things about motivational techniques. And they are fine as far as they go. Let me ask you this – Have you ever learned something about some brand new motivational technique and said “Yeah, that’s one I can really use.”
Me, too. Then when push came to shove, when you came to the point that something had to get done, the technique fell on it’s face?
Yeah, me too.
“Feets, don’t fail me now.” song written by Melvin Van Peebles
Sometimes, your feets fails ya, and you just don’t have a clue why. Why does that happen?
The Gift of Procrastination
A friend once told me something about the big P word, procrastination. If I had a nickel for every time someone told me he or she was a procrastinator, I would have, well, I would have a pocket full of nickels. If I had a nickel for everytime the committee told me that I was a procrastinator, I would have a gazillion nickels. Actually, that probably still doesn;t amount to much.
Here is what my friend told me.
When someone procrastinates, it is because they are damn well not ready to do something. It hasn’t become important enough, or it is something that is high on someone else’s agenda.
Ain’t that the truth?
Why does anyone get anything done? We get things done because whether we admit it or not, there is some compelling outcome that lives out there in futureland somewhere that we really want. Or sometimes don’t want.
It doesn’t make sense to put yourself out there to continually do somethng that you really don’t want to do anyway. I’m not saying that you can just quit doing anything you don’t want to do. Garbage still has to go out. Bills have to be paid (not my favorite). Those are things that come with extrinsic motivation. Our brain will tell us they have to be done if we don’t want to smell the garbage or have the old beater reposessed.
When you come right down to it, like “disposable income,” much of what we do in life is optional. We do things by choice. Until we find our own purpose that compels us to do what needs to be done, we are slaves to the circumstance of those outside motivators.
Writing was one of my optionals for a long time. I always told myself I wanted to write. Then the committee would go to work.
- What for?
- Who cares what you write anyway?
- Ya got nothin’ to say anyway, Kirkeberg.
That shit-assed committee of my own tiny mind often does its best keep me stuck. And the only reason it could work it’s magic is because I hadn’t made the ends of writing important enough. As my friend said, I wasn’t damn well ready to do it.
Motivation Comes from You, Not a Trick You Play on Your Mind
I recently watched a short video series by Chris Brogan recently. He was talking about what it takes to be an overnight success. Hint: It doesn’t happen overnight.
You have to watch the video to find that out, but one thing he said struck me, and I am paraphrasing liberally here. Chris was talking about his grueling schedule, and traveling at the time, and he said -
“I’m not complaining. This is what I chose. This is what I signed on for.”
His purpose.
And the “what I signed on for” is different for every person I’ve ever met. But the key is what road have you chosen to walk down. And what is at the end of that road that you are headed toward. The first here is what you value and the second is the goal that comes from the value.
You might just find that even the mundane tasks of everyday life are (almost) pleasantly doable if there is a compelling enough path and destination.
By the way, if this has been of interest, as my Alabaman friend might say, sign up for This Old Brain’s Newsletter
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