Page 34 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

People worry they will die of boredom or fear if they are alone for any

length of time. Other people have become so distraction-addicted that they
would consider sitting alone by themselves like being in a sensory-deprivation
tank. The truth is that the only real motivation we ever experience is self-
motivation that comes from within. And being alone with ourselves will always
give us motivating ideas if we stay with the process long enough.

The best way to truly understand the world is to remove yourself from it.
Psychic entropy—the seesaw mood swing between boredom and anxiety—
occurs when you allow yourself to become confused by massive input. By being
perpetually busy, glued to your cell phone, out in the world all day with no time
to reflect, you will guarantee yourself an eventual overwhelming sense of
confusion. The cure is simple and painless. The process is uncomplicated. “You
do not need to leave your room,” said Franz Kafka. “Remain sitting at your table

and listen. Do not even listen. Simply wait. Do not even wait. Be quiet, still, and
solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no
choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

19. Use your brain chemicals

There are drugs that you can use to motivate yourself with, those energizing
chemicals in your system that get activated when you hug someone, laugh, sing,

dance, or run. When you’re having fun, your body chemistry changes and you
get new biochemical surges of motivation and energy.

There isn’t anything you do that can’t be transformed into something
interesting and uplifting. Victor Frankl has written startling accounts of his life
in the Nazi concentration camps, and how some prisoners created new universes
unto themselves inside their own minds. It might sound absurd, but truly
imaginative people can access their inner chemical creativity in the loneliness of
a prison cell.

Don’t keep trying to go outside yourself searching for something that’s fun.
It’s not out there anywhere. It’s inside. The opportunity for fun is in your own
energy system—your synergy of heart and mind. That’s where you’ll find it. Pro
football Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton recommends looking at any task you do
as fun. “If it’s not fun,” he says, “you’re not doing it right.”

William Burroughs, a former drug addict and author of Naked Lunch,