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.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
So true. Watch where you step.
I think of motivation as the will to engage in life as an active participant rather than passively watching as a spectator.
A bolder resting on a hillside has reached the angle of repose. It reaches a balancing point where it no longer rolls down the hill. How many snowflakes will be required to reach a tipping point, break the point of equilibrium and start the bolder moving again? Some force is required for that to happen.
Motivation would seem to be the force of life that breaks acquired equilibrium and moves us from the angle of repose to the tipping point of action. This seems to be necessary for us to venture out of the ruts we create for ourselves and avoid life’s monotony and stagnation. Some force is required for our lives to gain forward momentum.
We often want that motivation (tipping force) to be supplied from sources outside ourselves (from some external source). Our way of justifying our inaction and passive approach to life is to say that we are waiting for some outside force to come along great enough to move us from where we are to some better place. It would be nice if life happened like that (maybe it does sometimes, but not often). Of course while we are waiting for some external force to move us forward we have to be content to live a life that is less than it could or should be.
Saying that we need to learn to do things because they are right or necessary (it seems to me) is a way of saying that we need to exercise some self motivation (the tipping force which comes from an internal source). We ought to take responsibility for supplying that tipping force that makes life move forward in positive directions rather than waiting wistfully for some outside force to magically set life in motion.
Sometimes life really is a matter of how long we are willing to live amid the poop.
Hmm…I don’t know what prompts me to clean the house. Sometimes I actually like to clean though (sorry, no, don’t want to come clean for you!!). I like that I can see the results, freshly vacuumed floor, nice smelling kitchen and bathroom (I like the smell of some cleaning products) etc… Where I sometimes lack the motivation is getting out the door for a workout lately…I’m not always inspired for that. Even after runs like last night.
Eff motivation – I find most of the time I lack it and like you said I just do things out of need or even just because I am on auto-pilot (read cleaning up poop, which I did again this morning in my living room thankyouverymuch). So eff you motivation.
Clorox tabs. A wonderful thing for those toilet bowls.
I think the problem is that the word “motivation” has been co-opted – taken from it’s many meanings to that simple meaning of strong need or desire or the clouds parting and the cheerleaders bursting forth. In my mind anything that compels me to act is my motivation. If it is the right thing to do, then that motivates me. If it’s important, then that becomes my motivation. If I need a clear path down the hall, then that is my motivation to clear the dog vomit from my path. Motivation isn’t neccesarily the big hurrah, but simply the reason I do what I do, whatever it is.
You are of course absolutely right. The same holds true for passion, finding a career that you feel passionate about. While this is all very well and good in theory, society sure wouldn’t function too long if we were all artists or dancers. Sometimes you just have to do things that you don’t absolutely love.
to this entire post, i say a big big big AMEN.
Great post. I know that it takes all the energy in the world for me to get the eff out of bed in the mornings and that I would do ANYTHING if it meant my workday could start an hour later. Seems these days I need motivation just go about my day. The bootcamp is helping though. More than I thought it ever could.
so true. so, so true.
sometimes life is just hard work. and the moments when you realize that the process–getting up, getting going, realizing you can do stuff when you don’t want to do it just because it has to get done and not expecting a ticker tape parade for it–is as much benefit to you as the destination at which you are hoping to arrive.
so…excuse me while i go grade papers and stop whining about it.
many, many thanks. i needed to hear this today.
On the subject of motivation and dog poop…
I feel motivated to pick up after my dog because I hate people who don’t pick up after theirs (remember I live in New York and people walk their dogs on sidewalks and public parks) and frankly I don’t have the time or energy to hate myself.
You gotta do what you gotta do.