Page 47 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

sit and compose his own music while listening to music on the three radios. This

would short-circuit his conscious mind and free up the creative subconscious. It
would overload the left side of his brain so the right could open up and create
without judgment.

My own ritual for jump-starting self-motivation is walking. Many times in
my life I have had a problem that seemed too overwhelming to do anything
about, and my ritual is to take the problem out for a long walk. Sometimes I
won’t come back for hours. But time and again during the course of my walks,
something comes out of nowhere—some idea for an action that will quickly
solve the problem.

One of the reasons I think this ritual works for me is that a ritual is action.
Starting a ritual is taking an action that leads toward finding the solution. The
dancing medicine man is already doing something. Make up little rituals for

yourself that will act as self-starters. They will have you in action before you
“feel like” getting into action. Rituals always override your built-in hesitation so
that you can get yourself motivated in a predictable, controllable way.

If you are not a writer, painter, or poet, you might be thinking that this does
not apply to you. But that’s what I would call the creative fallacy. In fact, your
entire life is yours to create. There are no “creative” professions that stand apart
from others, like an exclusive club. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Be an artist at
whatever you do. Even if you are a street sweeper, be the Michelangelo of street
sweepers!”

31. Find a place to come from

Most people think they’ll feel good once they reach some goal. They think
happiness is out there somewhere, perhaps not even too far away, but out there
all the same. The problem with putting off feeling good about yourself until you

hit a certain goal is that it may never happen. And you know all the time you’re
striving for it that it may never happen. So, by linking your happiness to
something you don’t have yet, you’re denying your power to create happiness
for yourself.

A lot of people use personal unhappiness as a tool, as proof of their own
sincerity and compassion. Yet, as Barry Kaufman points out eloquently in To
Love Is to Be Happy With, being unhappy is not necessary. You can be happy