Page 66 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

of energy and motivation.

46. Discover active relaxation

There is a huge difference between active relaxation and passive relaxation.
When we play video or computer games, play cards, work in the garden, walk
the dog, or play chess, we are interacting with the unexpected, and our minds are
responding. All of these activities increase personal creativity and intellectual
motivation. They are all active pursuits.

Active relaxation refreshes and restores the mind. It keeps it flexible and
toned for thinking. Great thinkers have known this secret for a long time.
Winston Churchill used to paint to relax. Albert Einstein played the violin. They
could relax one part of the brain while stimulating another. When they returned
to workday pursuits they were fresher and sharper than ever. Most of us try to
deaden the mind in order to relax. We rent mindless videos, read pulp fiction,
drink, smoke, and eat until we’re foggy and bloated. The problem with this form
of relaxation is that it dulls our spirit and makes it hard to come back to
consciousness.

I accidentally discovered the restorative powers of video and computer
games when I played some with my then 9-year-old son Bobby. What began as a
way to make him happy and spend time with him became a brain-challenging
pursuit. The complexity of computer football, basketball, and hockey games
required stimulating recreational thinking.

“Thinking is the hardest work we do,” said Henry Ford, “which is why so
few people ever do it.” But when we find ways to link thinking to recreation, our
lives get richer. We become players in the game of life and not just spectators.

47. Make today a masterpiece

Most of us think our lives accumulate. We think they are adding up to
something. We think of our lives as being strung together like a long smoky
train, so that we can add new freight cars when we’re feeling right, and dump the
others when we’re not.

But when basketball legend John Wooden’s father said to him, “Make each