Comments on: Motivation Schmotivation

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:21:08 +0000

This is probably my favorite post by you, it couldn’t be more dead-on. It’s about recognizing that life sometimes is about doing shit you don’t wanna do, and that excludes getting off the couch and exercising sometimes. Because you know that you’ll like the end results: clean dishes, clean house, healthy body, so on. The act itself doesn’t always have to be one of pure joy (although I do enjoy exercise quite often, not cleaning dishes so much), but it still needs to be an act, not a thought!

By: Karl

Karl — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:48:50 +0000

Hi PastaQueen,

Motivation is internal, and anyone who is doing what they need to do in order to reach a goal is finding their motivation. When we have trouble finding the motivation or when we find reasons to NOT do what we know would be in our best interest, we have lost sight of the goal. To reclaim ourselves and our worth, why not try something that has worked for millions of people?

Whether you contact me (I am licensed by the State of Indiana as a hypnotist/hypnotherapist) or someone else, check out hypnosis. It works!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:00:46 +0000

This is such an important post! And one I really needed right about now (thank you, karma). I am eating better, and feeling better about it, but haven’t started exercising. I’ve been floundering around, looking for something I’ll “enjoy” or other motivation (I even tried searching my library catalog for “exercise motivation”), and analyzing why I don’t. Never mind all that, says Pasta Queen. Yes, [s]ma’am[/s] my lady, I say! Do it because I must.

Puts a whole new meaning behind Nike’s slogan.

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:18:16 +0000

I totally agree with you on the whole “motivation” thing. Motivation doesn’t get me out of bed every morning to push my heart to 170 for 45 minutes. Sitting here, there is nothing I’d rather do less than go and do just that. But I do it every morning like clockwork. And why? It sure as hell isn’t motivation. Why would I suddenly lose my motivation as the day progresses? That doesn’t make much sense. I love to exercise. I don’t say to myself “oh, if you exercise this morning you can have an extra slice of cake” or anything like that.

If someone were to ask me for advice on good motivators to get out of bed and exercise at 7:00 every morning, I wouldn’t be able to tell them anything useful. I do it because I love it and because t feels good. I guess that’s motivation, but not the kind most people are looking for.

Also, I figure that since I’ve already been woken, I might as well get out of bed and exercise. I could sleep for an extra hour, but that wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying.

By: PastaQueen

PastaQueen — Thu, 31 May 2007 00:46:16 +0000

the veggie paparazzo – Is that some sort of hint? :) I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that with my book, but I’m going to try my hardest to make sure everyone who wants an autographed copy gets one.

By: the veggie paparazzo

the veggie paparazzo — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:49:18 +0000

I read books by Po Bronson, and with his last book, he had a thing where we could sign up to get the book delivered the day it came out with his signature in it. He stayed up all night signing copies at Powell’s before they shipped. I thought that was pretty awesome.

By: RG

RG — Sat, 26 May 2007 11:38:52 +0000

I found a note I wrote about it (dated 1/3/07): "idea of stages of incorporating motivations by kennon sheldon; external : because I have to; introjected: because I ought to; identified: because I choose to, and intrinsic: because I want to: extrinsic or intrinsic and internalized or not; follows stages of conscious/ unconscious competence". I'm not sure if that note makes much sense to you, but here's a link to an article about the four stages of competence: http://www.hootless.com/public/59.cfm

By: PastaQueen

PastaQueen — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:06:10 +0000

Instead of donating $5 to me, just buy 4 copies of my book, okay? It’ll help pay off my advance and maybe land me on the bestseller’s list. Give them to friends, enemies, your dog, whoever :) I’ll even sign them.

RG – That must have been a commenter who said that, but that’s a really interesting idea. Internal forces vs. external forces.

By: RG

RG — Fri, 25 May 2007 19:42:35 +0000

I remember you or a commenter explaining the different “kinds” of motivation some time ago: intrinsic and extrinsic, self-imposed and other-imposed (4 types). intrinsic is something you do for the inherent rewards (playing with bubbles) whereas extrinsic is something done for another purpose (to get to the microwave). Self-imposed is if you’re doing it for you and other-imposed is if you’re doing it for someone else.

I’m not sure what my point is, other than that all of these kinds of motivation can “work”. I even think you can be motivated by others, like losing weight for your kids. I suspect that the more types of motivation you can hook into, the more successful you’re likely to be.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:00:05 +0000

I love the line, “Just Do It”, because for me, yeah, that’s what it takes. Doing it till it’s habitual, then moving on to the next thing. Then falling off the wagon on an old habit, working on it again, and so on. A continuous cycle, but a joyful one. Because being stuck is so much worse.

Love your reflections on this. Just love ‘em.