Apparently, none of my readers have any motivation, since this little drawing was a complete bust. And, I was worried about having less than five entrants. I suppose I should have been worried about having none!
I’ll have to try to be more motivational in the future. Light some fires or something.
Popularity: 6% [?]
I was searching the blogosphere last night, looking for other motivational blogs. What I found was a lot of (apparently) unmotivated motivators. The majority of the blogs I looked at hadn’t been updated in over six months. Kind of hard to keep other people motivated if you can’t find the motivation to keep your blog updated!
On the one hand, most blogs fail. Most people tend to give up on blogging after a while. You would tend to think that motivational blogs might have a better fate, after all, experts on motivation should be able to keep themselves motivated, no? But, they are people nonetheless, and even the best of us can lose sight of things, or move on to other things.
At any rate, while external sources of motivation can be helpful (and sometimes much needed!), you have to have your own internal motivation. Otherwise, what happens when your motivator becomes unmotivated? If you don’t have your own self motivation–your own intrinsic motivation–then you’re dependent upon others for it! Motivation is not something you want to outsource!
You could buy some motivational posters and hang them around your home or office if you suffer from a lack of internal motivation, but depending on pictures and inspiring quotes is not the best form of encouragement. Mind you, that’s not to say that it’s not good. Posters and quotes and so on can provide a lot of support, especially those times when you’re feeling down.
But, still you don’t want to depend upon extrinsic motivation. You want something a little closer to your heart, like your dreams and your goals.
So, the question is, what motivates you? What is your dream, and what have you done toward achieving that dream?
Okay, three questions, though your motivation and your dream may be the same thing, or not. So, we’ll call it two and a half questions. And, let’s put those in bold so they stand out:
Don’t answer here! Nope, blog it! Answer these questions in a post on your own blog, and link to this post. Also, leave a comment on this post when you have done that.
Why Write about Your Motivation?
Well, how about money for a motivating factor?
How much? I’ll get to that in a minute. First, the rules.
The Prize.
How much is the prize? Well, first of all, I will have a follow-up post in which I will link to all the entries. So, at minimum, you’re getting a linkback. That’ll hold true even if there are fewer than five entrants.
Note: All amounts are in U.S. dollars.
There you go. I am giving you a good motivation to not only enter but to also encourage your own readers to enter as well. The more entrants, the more you can win!
As far as money winners go, there can be only one! Only one person will win the money. But, everyone is a winner in a sense, because everyone will get a linkback!
So, everyone…
Believe. Act. Achieve!
Popularity: 5% [?]
Whenever you’re feeling down, like some things are just impossible, you might want to watch this video. (Just don’t try this at home!)
Impossible Is Nothing. Gravity On Wheels - Funny home videos are a click away
You may have seen this guy’s work before, but it is still amazing what he can do with spray paint.
Masterpiece In Minutes With Spray Paint. - Click here for more blooper videos
Finally, one of my favorite songs, alongside some very cool shadow puppets.
Its A Wonderful World - These bloopers are hilarious
Popularity: 5% [?]
Five proverbs for this fine day.
The shortest answer is doing.
Hope is as cheap as despair.
All are not fools that look so.
The heart should give charity when the hand cannot.
Empty vessels make the greatest sound.
Discuss amongst yourselves…
Popularity: 8% [?]
Knowledge will ever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
–James Madison
Tell me how it is that in this room there are three candles and but one light, and I will explain to you the mode of Divine existence.
–John Wesley
Pay what you owe, and your worth you’ll know.
–Proverb
Criticisms never hurt anybody. If false they can’t hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true they show a man his weak points and forewarn him against failure.
–W. E. Gladstone
They who never think, always talk.
–Proverb
The world is yet in the twilight, doubtless, but it is the twilight of the breaking dawn, not the falling night. Despair of the world’s future is disloyalty to God.
–G. B. Wilcox
Fame is what you have taken;
Character’s what you give.
When to this truth you waken,
Then you begin to live.
–Anonymous
Great deeds cannot die;
They with the sun and moon renew their light
Forever, blessing those that look on them.
–Alfred Tennyson
Happy are those who have a lyre in the heart, and music in the mind which their actions perform.
–Joseph Joubert
Time is short enough for those who know how to use it; time is very, very long for those who do not know how to use it that their main difficulty is to devise means to get rid of it.
–Robert Collyer
Industry pays debts, but despair increases them.
–Proverb
The wealth of a man is the number of things he loves and blesses, which he is loved and blessed by.
–Thomas Carlyle
Wit is the lightning of the mind.
–Proverb
Every duty we omit obscures some truth we should have known.
–John Ruskin
Every man is the architect of his own fortune.
–Proverb
A good book and a good woman are excellent things for those who know how justly to appreciate their value. There are men, however, who judge of both from the beauty of the covering.
–Anonymous
Greatness stands on a precipice.
–Proverb
Many a young man is utterly ruined by wealth and want of occupation. It does not cost much to live a happy, honorable life, but it costs a mint of money to live and do nothing.
–T. W. Handford
In all the affairs of human life, social as well as political, I have remarked that courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest to the grateful and appreciating heart.
–Henry Clay
Write injury on water and kindness on marble.
–Proverb
To him who has been sated and disappointed by the actual and intelligible, there is a profound charm in the unattainable and inscrutable.
–Anonymous
Believe. Act. Achieve!
Popularity: 8% [?]
“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”
–Henry David Thoreau
Fourth and goal, with five seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of the championship game. Your team is down by 3, and you’ve decided to go for it all. The ball is snapped, and you run into the end zone. You’re open! You’re open! The quarterback throws you the ball. No one stands in your way. The ball comes to you. You reach out for it, and you drop it.
What are you? As the crowd will remind you, you are a loser. No, make that Loser with a capital L. L-O-S-E-R. Loser.
But, is a loser who you are?
Too often, we define ourselves by what we are, instead of who we are. Too, we define others by what they are instead of who they are. She’s a student. He’s a garbageman. She’s a housekeeper. He’s a janitor. And so on.
All truths about character, intelligence, creativity, ability and more get tossed out the window when we define someone by what they are rather than who they are. We assume the janitor is unmotivated or lacking in intelligence. We assume the man in the nice suit is successful and smart. But, when we judge by what a person is, we fail to appreciate who they are.
Those assumptions are perhaps even more dangerous when we apply them to ourselves, when we define ourselves by what we do or what we did, and not by who we are.
You dropped the ball. Yes, you are a loser, but only in the technical, literal sense. You lost. You are a loser. That is what you are.
Where the problem arises is when you let that define who you are. When you class yourself in the category of “loser” and give up. When you skip the tryouts for the college team because you’re a loser and you’ll never make it. When you give up too soon, and don’t give yourself enough time and practice to do better, because you’re a loser and you’ll never make it.
Who we are is defined by our attitude, by our own thoughts about ourselves. You may have lost the game, but you can still be a winner. You can get back up, dust yourself off, and practice harder before tryouts for the college team.
I think part of the reason many people don’t succeed in fulfilling their dreams is because they allow themselves to be defined by what they are rather than who they are. You can be the person you imagine yourself to be, unless you stop imagining.
And, many people stop imagining. As Thoreau wrote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” It is probably because they stopped imagining. Always remember to BAA! Believe. Act. Achieve.
“Our thoughts form the universe. They are always important.”
–G’Kar, Babylon 5
Popularity: 7% [?]
“What’s the point of being grown up if you can’t be childish sometimes?”
–The Fourth Doctor, Doctor Who, “Robot”
When you were a child, dreaming of being “all grown up,” did you picture yourself sitting behind a desk, making phone calls, pushing papers, etc.? Or, did you fancy yourself in a somewhat more fun position? Probably, no matter what your dreams were, you were going to be having fun doing them, no?
And, even if you have a boring job, you can at least have a more exciting life in your off-time hours, no? But, most people don’t, do they?
Sure, some people continue to party irresponsibly well into adulthood, but for most adults, even parties are tediously dull affairs. People gather round, drinking alcoholic beverages, discussing sports, politics and all manner of horrendously boring topics that haven’t changed since the days of Caesar or even earlier. “Going out” means getting dressed up in nice, respectable clothes that are uncomfortable and so dastardly dull.
Then, you’ll get talked up by the social butterflies who will flutter around the room, introducing themselves, asking how you are, but never sticking around long enough to hear the answer. Or, worse, they will pretend to listen to the answer while looking around the room for their next target, and say “That’s great!” to your response that your life is a miserable cesspool and even your cat left you.
So, what is the point of being grown up, if you can’t be childish sometimes? After all, wasn’t doing the things you wanted to do the point of growing up and being your own person?
I never drank after turning 21. I would go to adult gatherings and have a Coke while everyone else drank all manners of spirits. And, it’s not easy being a non-drinker in a drinking world. My first taste of adulthood was that adults were just as childish as children, if not more so, and not in the good way. Just by the attitude projected by others, you feel like you’re less of an adult if you’re not drinking. Despite television ads and lectures by adults discouraging youths from drinking, it’s almost a complete 180° after you turn 21. Then, it’s like something is wrong with you if you don’t drink.
The first time I had a drink after 21 was well after I was 21. And, I shouldn’t have. I was, more or less, pressured into it, and I gave in more to prove that I could than anything else. That was a mistake, and I regret it. Why should I care what other people think? If they think less of me because I choose not to drink, that’s their problem. Not mine.
On top of that, it was a pretty lousy drink too. I don’t remember what it was, but the swill was no doubt created by fermenting the sludge from some polluted lake where cities dumped their untreated sewage. But, I drank the whole freaking glass, so I made my point, even if I should have not given in at all.
(The second time was a different situation. The drink was free with dinner, and, though I would have normally refused, you got to keep the glass. Free glass. I can’t easily turn down a bargain.)
Anyway, that’s the wrong kind of childish to be when you’re grown up. Don’t be the childish adult that doesn’t respect the choices that others make, and don’t be the foolish adult that gives in to peer pressure either.
Don’t worry so much about what other people think. Be you. If people only like the you that dresses and acts like them and not the you that’s you, forget them! Ditch the high heels and loafers and wear a pair of comfortable athletic shoes instead. Who cares if it’s not fashionable? Who cares if people think it looks funny with a suit or fancy dress? You spend more time with your feet than they do, so who is it better to keep happy?
In that respect, you can be a little childish. It’s okay to be childish when doing so doesn’t hurt anyone or neglect your responsibilities. Who’s hurt by you not drinking? Who’s hurt by you wearing comfortable shoes? No one. So, be childish!
Jelly baby, anyone?
Popularity: 8% [?]
Perhaps an off-the-wall bit of motivation, but love songs often have the power to move you.
I’ll do this a little differently. I’ll list the quote. You (in the comments) identify the song and artist.
The only prize is bragging rights.
1. “I’m going crazy, I’m losing sleep. I’m in too far. I’m in too deep over you.”
–Cheap Trick, “The Flame”
Answered by Sabrina
2. “Oh I had a dream, for a moment I believed it was true.”
–Icehouse, “Electric Blue”
Answered by Lewis Empire
3. “I dreamt the impossible–that maybe things could work out right.”
–Johnny Hates Jazz, “Shattered Dreams”
Answered by Lewis Empire
4. “One day you may find true love that will last forever and ever.”
5. “Say my name, sun shines through the rain. A whole life so lonely, and then you come and ease the pain.”
–The Bangles, “Eternal Flame”
Answered by JD
6. “Am I just fooling myself that she’ll stop the pain. Living without her I’d go insane.”
7. “What seemed to be an infatuation is so different now. I can’t get by if we’re not together.”
–Foreigner, “I Don’t Want to Live Without You”
Answered by Lewis Empire
8. “You’ll never find peace of mind till you listen to your heart.”
–George Michael, “Kissing a Fool”
Answered by Joanne
9. “I told you that we could fly ’cause we all have wings, but some of us don’t know why.”
10. “Long as the night will be, the sun will rise without you.”
–Paul Carrack, “Don’t Shed a Tear”
Answered by Lewis Empire
Popularity: 10% [?]
This contest had twice as many entrants as the last one! Woohoo!
This time, our entrants were: Icedragon and Alex.
The drawing was held, and a winner randomly selected. This time, I did not do a reverse draw. Instead, the first name drawn was to be the winner.
And, that winner is…
Drumroll please…
Icedragon!
Congratulations and thanks to all who participated.
Popularity: 8% [?]
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