Page 108 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

exercise, I say, “Put anything down. Make something up. It doesn’t even have to

be true. They don’t even have to be your goals, just do it so you can understand
the exercise we’re about to do.” The point is to just do it.

In many ways we are all novelists like Anne Lamott. Our novels are our
lives. And many of us get a tragic form of writer’s block that causes us to not
write anything at all. It’s a tragedy, because deep down we are very creative. We
could write a great life. It’s just that we’re so afraid of writing badly, that we
never write. Don’t let this happen to you. If you’re not motivated to do
something you know you need to do, just decide to do it badly. Add a little self-
deprecating humor. Be comically bad at what you’re doing. And then enjoy what
happens to you once you’re into the process.

75. Learn visioneering

A few years ago I spent some enjoyable time working with motivational
speaker Dennis Deaton and teaching his principles of visioneering—which he
defines as “engineering dreams into reality” by the use of active mental imaging.
When I gave my weekly Thursday night public seminars, I’d sometimes teach
Deaton’s visioneering concepts, and my (then) little daughter Margery would
always accompany me. She helped hand out workbooks and pencils and when
the seminar got started she would take a seat in the audience, open her own

workbook and participate. She was 10 at the time, and I was never certain
exactly how much she was absorbing.

Then one weekend afternoon by the pool at our apartment complex, I
relaxed in a deck chair while Margie and her girlfriend Michelle played by the
pool. There were a lot of people in and around the water that day, but above
them all I could hear Margery and Michelle having a heated conversation down
by the deep end of the water.

“I just can’t do it!” said Michelle.

“Yes, you can,” said Margie. “You just have to believe you can.”

“I’m afraid to dive,” said Michelle. “I’ve never dived in my life.”

“Michelle,” said Margie, “listen to me. Will you just try it my way?”

“I don’t know,” said Michelle. “Okay, what’s your way?”