Page 138 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Become a performer. Be an actor and a singer. Act like you already feel like

you want to feel. Don’t wait until the feeling motivates you. It could be a long
wait. Most of us believe that an emotion, such as happiness, comes first. Then
we do whatever we do, in reaction to that particular emotion. Not so. The
emotion arises simultaneously with the doing of the act. So if you want to be
enthusiastic, you can get there by acting as if you were already enthusiastic.
Sometimes it takes a minute. Sometimes it skips a beat. But it always works if
you stay with it, no matter how ridiculous you feel doing it.

Feel ridiculous. If you want to be happy, find the happiest song you know
and sing it. It works. Not always in the first few moments, but if you keep at it, it
works. Just fake it until you make it. Soon your happy singing will show you
how much control you do have over your own emotions.

Zen monks do a laughing meditation in which they all gather in a circle and

get ready to laugh. At the stroke of a certain hour the teacher hits a gong, and all
the monks begin to laugh. They have to laugh, whether or not they feel like it.
But after a few moments the laughter becomes contagious. Soon all the monks
are laughing genuinely and heartily. Children do this, too. They start giggling for
no reason (often at the dinner table or some other forbidden setting, and the
giggling itself makes them laugh). The truth is this: laughter itself can make you
laugh. The secret of happiness is hidden inside that last sentence. But adults
aren’t always comfortable with this. Adults want kids to have reasons for
laughing. As I used to drive my children long distances to visit relatives, I’d get
most irritated when they began laughing and giggling in the back seat without
reason. I developed a backstroke swing to curb the laughter. “Why are you
laughing?” I would shout. “You have no reason to be laughing! This is a

dangerous highway and I’m trying to drive here!”

But adults like me might want to get back that appreciation for joyful
spontaneity. We might want to confront the question, “What is the one thing that
most makes me feel like singing?” And then know the answer: “Singing.” What
most gets you in the mood to dance? Dancing. The next time you ask someone to
dance, and they say, “I don’t feel like dancing,” you might reply, “That’s
because you’re not dancing.”

100. Walk with love and death

“I am a coward.”