Are you the type of person who exudes energetic productivity and have so much motivation and are then overwhelmed by all the things you're trying to do? Or are you--like me--someone who perhaps has good intentions, but lacks the motivation to do anything about them?
If you are the former I would like to request that you share your oodles of 'get it done' attitude and we can balance the scales together.😂 If the latter, I feel you, writer. But regardless of either scenario, I have a few truths about motivation on my mind today and I'm jotting them down for both of you. Most simply, powerfully, and annoyingly....
Action comes first, and motivation follows afterward.
I know. How rude.
What this means for writers like myself is that if we sit around waiting for motivation to strike--and it doesn't--the internal and external pressures will keep building (the inner critic yelling you aren't a real writer because you aren't even writing at all! The deadlines fast approaching!) until you have to do the task. But the procrastination leaves little time between when you finally sit down to do the thing, and when it needs to be done. This is also why college students end up writing their papers the night before they are due, because they finally have no other choice than to have motivation to get the thing done. Motivation on its own is a fleeting thing that is rarely caught. But it's also a follower, and it has a best friend whose footsteps it will shadow to the end of time. Because if Action is there, Motivation has to come, too. She can't help herself. She has FOMO. This idea is talked about a lot in the writing community that I am a part of, Quill and Cup. We always tell writers to simply get their butt in the chair, and the rest will follow. The hardest step is starting. But once there, once the action is taken, the motivation will follow. Maybe the first couple sentences are hard to push out, but you'll hit flow before you know it because motivation follows action. Your brain will start to feel its happy chemicals and words will flow. Trust me. I've seen it in action, both for other writers and for myself. All this motivation talk is on my mind today because throughout August I have been lacking this illusive sunbeam and I have not been instigating it with action as I do know how. The summer break got its hooks in me and my little brain has been stubbornly demanding the quick happy chemicals (Netflix!) and avoiding the effort involved to do work (though those happy chemicals are a greater reward when they come). Today I've finally sat my butt in the chair and decided to put the knowledge I possess into practice yet again.
My point, I think, is to be an encouragement. The procrastination happens to the best of us. The unwillingness to do comes upon us all. As an enneagram 9 it's a massive struggle to do anything at all--from taking a shower, to writing a book, to choosing something to eat. If it requires any amount of effort at all, my brain throws a tantrum and tries to choose the easiest way out. So don't worry if this applies to you, we've all been there. But you don't have to stay there.
I certainly don't. Sometimes, like this month, I fluctuate between putting into practice what I know (action before motivation) and choosing the easy out (and therefore not doing the things I actually do want to be doing, like writing). Sometimes I'm on fire, always taking action steps and fueling my motivation as I'm supposed to. And I think that's another point I'm pondering on this lovely Sunday afternoon...
There's no need for shame.
I have not been doing as I ought, as I know how. I have not put action before motivation and therefore haven't had much motivation--if any. But now that I'm getting back in the proverbial saddle, I'm not going to smack talk myself for the wasted time this month. I'll just start where I am and move forward. And you can, too.
Thanks for indulging my motivation rambles. I'd love to know where you are in this dance between action and motivation!
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