Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motivation. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

"Okay, I've got this!" How I get up and at 'em

I'm doing the avoiding portion of procrastination now. I've done my acupuncture and my e-stim. I've done my morning meditation. I now need to go eat breakfast, do yoga, and get into my studio to record chapters 7 and 8 of the audiobook. But, my voice is not yet awake. And I admit I'm nervous about getting the project done by this Monday's deadline.


So, what am I doing instead of getting up and getting to work? I'm sitting on FB. :sigh: It's not that I lack motivation. It's that I'm waiting to feel urgency (because historically, the more urgency I've felt the faster and better I've done the work). And that's ridiculous, because objectively, the urgency is there. I need to have all the recording finished by Friday afternoon and every evening this week is busy. 


It's the strangest internal skirmish, isn't it? You know you need to get up and go and do and make and get done all those things you need to go and do and make and get done. And yet, perversely, you sit still instead of moving.


I generally don't allow this for myself. I usually employ a tried and true method that gets me up and at 'em. It's simple, really. I give myself a count of five. It can be a slow count of five. Between each number, I breathe and rest and make myself feel like I have all the time in the world. I consciously release all worry or even concern about my looming deadlines. And then at five, I force myself into motion with an "Okay! I've got this!" And then, I get up and I do.


So, I'm off to do my count of five. 


What's your "count of five?" What do you do to motivate yourself to get up and at 'em?



Thursday, August 21, 2014

So, get to it already. (the idea, the motivation, and the desire - the necessary pieces of creation)

Sometimes, wisdom knocks me on the noggin from the most unexpected places. I was watching a random episode of Warehouse 13 while I was eating dinner and Kelly Hu's character (she's the new owner of the B&B) said the following to Claudia about her wanting to be the new caretaker of the Warehouse. 


"If you want to be the Caretaker so badly, go caretake." 


I started laughing and crying simultaneously because truer words were never spoken. And they apply to pretty much anything.


"If you want to be a writer so badly, go write."


"If you want to be a figure skater so badly, go figure skate."


"If you want to be a ______ so badly, go _________."


The key is to figure out what you want and then go after it like you are a missile and it is the target. And most importantly don't give up. Don't ever give up. And frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not you "can" or "should" go be whatever it is you want to go do or be. What matters is that you go for it with everything you've got.


Sheer brilliance. Thanks, Warehouse 13 writers. You rock!