I am not sure if it’s my state of mind lately, or that I’ve done like so many of us do and piled my plate a bit too high, or that I’m just now noticing this huge motivation trend that seems to be everywhere, but I’m irritated by it. In fact, I think I’ve decided that I don’t like it. No, not motivation altogether. Motivation is great. Motivation is inspiring and helpful and powerful. But it is an emotion. It is not a need. Sure, it would be great if it came along at just the right time, but then again I could say the same for tall men with accents and perfect-fitting jeans. It would be nice.
Motivation, though, is overrated by and large. I want to feel the need to get off the couch. I want to feel the need to floss my teeth. I want to feel the need to get a job and earn a living. Please. We are here for a lot of reasons, so many of which I’m not yet sure, but one of those reasons cannot be that we always must be thrilled to do what we have to do. Or, for that matter, what we want to do. Anyone who has ever had to vacuum a floor, wash a car, or clean up after a dog knows there is a disconnection between wanting that task done and actually wanting to do it.
It is this disconnection that I think we’ve somehow started to not accept. So the messages we’re sent through advertising, entertainment, etc. tell us that we have to be motivated through every step of a process. If we want to make a change, we have to have motivation. If we want to right a wrong, we have to be inspired. Forget that it’s the right or good or healthy thing to do, if the sky doesn’t open up with rays of sunshine and a hundred cheerleaders don’t show up at your door, well that’s a perfect excuse to do nothing. To just let something slide.
I’m guilty of this. It’s part of the reason I procrastinate, that’s for sure. It’s the reason I have fantasies about other people cleaning my house. I am so far from being motivated to clean the toilet it is not even funny. But somehow, I am not growing mold in there, so I guess it just gets done. Like the vacuuming, and the homework and cleaning up after the dog.
Even with all it’s power, all it’s inspirational capabilities, sometimes you cannot just sit around waiting on motivation. Sometimes you have to decide to do something because it’s important. Sometimes you have to decide that yes, getting the shovel out is not what you want to do, but neither is continuing to step in poop.
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