Page 11 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Motivation Requires Fire

When Bob Dylan wrote in his book Chronicles about how much he admired
Joan Baez before he met her, he said, “I’d be scared to meet her. I didn’t want to

meet her but I knew I would. I was going in the same direction even though I
was in back of her at the moment. She had the fire, and I felt I had the same kind
of fire.”

We don’t question what he means by “the fire.” We read on, knowing full
well what he means. But sometimes I wonder, though. Do we really? Do we
know it from experience? Do we feel the same fire? Do you have to be a poet or
a singer? No. We all know what it is to have that same fire, no matter how
briefly we have experienced it.

My own life’s turning point came when I discovered I could light that fire all
by myself. It took me more than 50 years to discover this. But I’m slow in these
matters. You can get it today if you want. For the first 50 years of my life I

thought the fire only happened when something inspired me. It was something
that had to happen to me. And the reason I believed that was because that was
my experience. You have to go by what you know, don’t you?

The funniest thing about fire is that it takes fire to light it.

I go to the fireplace to start a fire. I put crumpled-up newspaper under the
kindling. Then I put the logs over the kindling wood. But how do I start this fire?
I need a match. Or a lighter. You have to have fire to start a fire. Ironic?

Paradoxical? Counter-intuitive? Cruel hoax?

A friend of mine once said, “You’re on fire!” He was referring to the fact
that I’d just sent him a flurry of book ideas, written copy for things we were
selling, recorded audio programs, and a number of other activities and actions.

How did I set myself on fire? With fire.

One action led to another and I wasn’t afraid to rise early and work. I made
myself exercise. I devoted myself to work instead of allowing distraction. Work

(as it always does when you throw your entire self into it) soon became fun.

Playwright Noel Coward said, “Work is more fun than fun.”