What motivates your wants?
April 17, 2011 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Visual Meditation of the Week
Generally speaking the human species is more successfully motivated by rewards than punishments.
Simply put we do better when having fun working towards goals.
Wanting something simply to escape something else almost always brings the demons along for the ride.
Are you trying to reach for a dream or run away from a nightmare?
The No Excuses Project: “Nobody will notice…”
December 9, 2009 by Juliet Chase
Filed under No Excuses Project
As excuses go this one, “nobody will notice if I don’t do it because nobody is paying any attention” can go two ways. Either it’s a sign of laziness as in the gum-popping clerk that shuts up shop an hour before closing or it’s a symptom of less than perfect self-esteem. The self-esteem version is what’s of interest here – the people that feel that they don’t count enough to go after their dreams, even if it’s only a momentary lapse.
It seems to me that people notice far more than they talk about. We are so concerned with personal space these days that unless it’s your really close friend, nobody is likely to say ‘hey, whatever happened to that dream of going to Europe, did you do anything about that?’ because they figure you’ll bring it up if you want to talk about it. The smallest action on your part has a ripple effect on others and you probably have at least one example of that somewhere in your past.
I know I have also used this excuse for the mundane things like doing the dishes. There is a fine line between letting that go to focus on something more important and letting it slide too far because you don’t think you really deserve to live in a comfortable environment. It could be true if you live alone that nobody else will notice (for awhile…) but you notice and that counts for just as much.
Next week: It will require too much risk
Uninspired and moving forward
September 29, 2009 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Importance of Motivation
It’s not exactly writer’s block – I’m just feeling a lack of a topic here! And that in itself is a subject because it happens to all of us at some point and in all sorts of tasks. I thought about my choices: go and eat and hope that inspiration will strike, skip this post and hope nobody will notice, stare at the screen until something happens or what I’m doing which is closely related to stream of consciousness. I don’t have time to put it off and yet nothing major has happened. I thought about writing about balance but if I sound preachy in my own head, I’m unlikely to write it better so thinking I should save that.
I think these dips are natural – I just came off a weekend of intense stuff and trying to fit a lot in and I know I have that coming up again in a few days. In my new era of no excuses I decided that moving forward even if it feels awkward was the best plan. I’m not entirely convinced. Doing the boring little prep tasks or future chores is my way of powering through them; things like making ear wires for earrings (not inspiring work but it needs to get done at some point) or catching up on laundry so that when inspiration does hit, it’s less of a conflict. It’s all good:-)
The No Excuses Project: I’m too tired
August 26, 2009 by Juliet Chase
Filed under No Excuses Project
For those of us that analyze things six ways to Sunday before taking any action, this is a common excuse – not to get out of doing the work but because we’ve already worn ourselves out with thinking instead of doing.
And yet it is also true that when presented with something purely fun requiring no planning or pass/fail grades we find ourselves suddenly revived. So tiredness isn’t really the issue.
I certainly have felt too hot and too tired this week and yet my purpose in extended my stay was to get specific things done. My effective strategy so far is simply to take a short break and then get up and do just one more thing. No great insight there but it does mean progress gets made even if everything doesn’t get completed as envisioned. Not using the excuse doesn’t mean turning yourself into a superhero either. I think that’s where the whole ‘have it all’ failed – there are still only 24 hours in a day and some of them are needed for sleep. When big tasks present themselves, other things need to be modified. I had two rooms of files and stuff to sort out this week so I cut back on the blogging to every other day. I could have said I was too tired for even that much. Instead I took a little bit of time out for this and still managed to manage the other tasks. I will have to watch where it creeps up when I’m back on my regular schedule and there’s something interesting on TV!
Next week’s excuse is tbd, I should be back home tomorrow and will pick one out then…
