I've been writing for publication every day, for some time now. Not quite two years, but well on the way. Amazingly (to me) I've not missed a day.
So I now have a fair bit of experience of ‘what it's like’ (for a Giles, anyway) in my little Thought System 📦
Before I started, I did not.
I could not even comprehend doing this. In very simple terms, the experiential reality of writing daily was outside of my Thought System—a known unknown—so all my left brain had to go on was:
- What it had observed of others writing daily, and
- What it had observed of my own, much more sporadic, writing habits.
These are both The Past. That's all the mind has at its disposal, which I think you'll agree is a spectacularly limited dataset.
Like, that's nothing. (We know nothing.)
And given that it's generally trying to look out for me (but in a really inappropriate and clueless way), it's maybe no surprise that—until I had some coaching—that very same left brain had looked at the notion of writing daily and concluded:
It was only when quizzed, professionally, by someone else, about its reasons for said conclusion, that its BS was dragged out, kicking and screaming, to start dissolving under the light of scrutiny, and then go away completely, once I actually started writing daily.
(There's a lesson there, I'm sure.)
Anyway, one key concern—before I started—was motivation. The mind couldn't see how it would be able to sustain the level of motivation that was surely required to write daily.
How would I do that?! it asked. Go from not-motivated, to motivated enough to write, if I didn't feel like it? Probably safer not to, eh?
😳
Well, I'm here to report that you don't need to ‘motivate yourself’. It's another mind-story, designed to have you playing really small in life. The mind likes to think it's what motivates you, but it isn't.
This I realised, just from basic observation.
One morning, I noticed that I didn’t feel motivated first thing. I had a ton of stuff to do and I didn't want to do any of it.
So I didn't.
Instead, I just spent some time ‘being’ (which looks a lot like procrastinating – seemingly idly scrolling on my phone, and doing crosswords).
Half an hour later, I notice I’m feeling really motivated.
But I didn’t do anything. It can’t be a case of ‘motivate your self’ because I didn’t do it!! It just happened.
🤔
So, what if… it’s just there, but there’s usually some noise getting in the way of it?
What would it be like if that were the case?
How would you feel about being ‘motivated’ then?
I'm not suggesting you take my word for it. (Ever.) I'm suggesting that next time you find you're not motivated, just keep an eye out for how it works to become motivated, once more.
Where does motivation come from, and realistically what part do ‘you’ (the Reader Ego Construct 📦) play?
Just notice.
Warning: You might find yourself doing a whole load of things you really want to do, that the mind had been putting imaginary roadblocks in front of.
🚧
Giles
p.s. you can report back your findings in the comments!
p.p.s. If you want me to drag some of your mind BS out into the open, so it starts to dissolve under the light of scrutiny, and then goes away once you start doing the thing you really want to do… get in touch.