Motivation

I recently attempted to complete a writing challenge called NaNoWriMo, which stands for the National Novel Writing Month. Essentially, it is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I did not complete my novel in time, but I am very proud of the incredible progress I made, especially considering the fact that I’m a full-time college student and I work 30 hours per week at my job. And I’m gonna continue it and finish it.

November was one of the most motivated months I’ve had in a long time. I was writing a lot, reading a lot, doing well in my classes, working my job, exercising a lot, eating pretty well, and I didn’t drink until the last day of the month. So it got me thinking about the concept of motivation, what it is, what it isn’t, how it feels, and so on.

Sometimes I feel a feeling of motivation, and sometimes I don’t. Some days I wake up and I’m just like, “Yeah! Let’s do it! Let’s do some stuff! I’m motivated!” and it honestly can feel very euphoric. I feel like a hero. Especially when it’s that super-motivation feeling in a creative sense. When I’m motivated to write, and the writing is flowing freely, and it’s good [hopefully], and I’m getting a lot done, that is one of the best feelings in the world. I start thinking, “Yeah! This is amazing! This is why I’m here on this planet!”

Bit of a cheesy thing to think, but you are what you eat. Anyway, motivation is kinda like… happiness, or something. You can’t really force it to happen. There’s no magic formula to produce it. Sometimes you just don’t have it. Like two weeks ago, I was planning on writing this essay on Christmas movies. I had some interesting thoughts, some funny jokes, some social commentary. It was gonna be great. But it was getting close to Christmas. So on the 23rd I was like “All right, I’m gonna go to work, get through the day, drink coffee so that I have enough energy. Then I’ll write that essay when I get home.” 

Then I got home, and I started writing about how, in the old Rudolph movie, Rudolph goes through puberty, and when he reunites with the reindeer who bullied him, they all have New York accents for some reason. That’s kind of interesting, but after I wrote a little bit, I just felt no motivation. I did some pushups. That helps sometimes, but not this time. There’s no magic formula. It was just done. So I closed my computer. Bit sad, innit?

And yeah, sure, there are things you can do to make the feeling of motivation more frequent and more likely. Sure. For example, if you drink a lot of alcohol, you probably won’t have a strong sense of motivation the next day. And living a healthy lifestyle in general will, generally, lead to more motivation, generally speaking, of course. That’s how it was for me in November. I was exercising a lot, eating pretty well, I wasn’t drinking, I was going to sleep early and waking up at the same time, that type of thing. But here’s the problem: those things also require motivation! That lifestyle may produce some motivation for writing, but it also requires motivation to exercise every day. It’s fucked! 

So inevitably there comes a day when you can’t summon the energy to do those things, those things that are sustaining your motivation. You just can’t do it one day. That’s all right, you take a break. You try to recapture the motivation the next day. There’s some, but not as much as before. And then, well, it snowballs. It can snowball, until you’re an unmotivated blob, eating Chex Mix and replaying Super Mario 64 for the hundredth time. That’s what I do anyway. Sometimes, tragically, I seem to reach a low point of despair before I’m jolted back into a motivation-fueled period. Bit tough, innit?

So that’s the day-to-day motivation. But what about the general motivation of one’s life? What motivates me the most in life? That’s a huge fuckin question, and one that people may grapple with throughout their entire lives. I know I do, from time to time. Is it money? Love? Fame? Literary excellence? Something as indescribable as success? The approval of certain people? What motivates me? A combination of things. The mind is a complex thing, and it has a convoluted set of wrinkles and billions of neurons which shoot certain messages here and there. I’m not too sure. 

I think about it often. What motivates people? Different things, probably. They’ve all got their own billions of neurons firing their little electric signals about. Some people say, “Well, people everywhere and in every culture are just motivated by profit. Money. Greed is everything in human nature. That is the motivation.” I find that very interesting. I disagree, of course. I think we can look at people and see that they are trying to make more money, they want more money, they’re happy to make more money. One person can see that and say “people are motivated by greed.” Meanwhile I can see those same people and say “people are motivated by a desire to improve their lives, and the society is designed such that the best way to improve your life is through money.” 

Martin Shkreli certainly is motivated by profit, by money, by greed. He’s a lot more motivated by that than, say, Jonas Salk. Of course, Salk needed money to live, as we all do. 

I find this reduction of human behavior to greed quite peculiar. I’ve heard it my whole life, and I’ve believed it at times. I don’t now. I find it especially interesting when discussing an idea such as Universal Basic Income [UBI]. Sometimes the same people who say that people are fundamentally, completely motivated by maximizing their own wealth, will also say that, if we give people enough to live, they’ll simply collapse and do nothing for the rest of their lives. If greed was such a fundamental motivating factor of human nature, why would it disappear once basic needs are met? Bit strange, innit?

That’s somewhat strawman-ish, and there are some other potential problems with UBI, but I have had conversations similar to that. The truth is that human motivation is complex, varied, and heavily influenced by social systems. 

Oh! And this month tends to be one with a lot of motivation. It’s a new-year new-me, clean slate, fresh start type of thing. Can be a bit silly, but I do it too sometimes. I get motivated in January. It’s kinda fun. Sometimes you gotta try to manufacture motivation. Michael Jordan, one of the most motivated guys that I know of, used to manufacture motivation out of anything. Any little comment, or gesture, or someone saying ‘Hi’ at a restaurant,’ or someone not saying ‘Hi’ at a restaurant, or someone saying he gambles too much, or a different player winning an award, or getting sick, he just used any and everything to motivate himself. Pretty incredible. And I often get motivated when I watch Michael Jordan videos. So I’ve watched The Last Dance quite a few times. It tends to get me motivated. Not that I want to be “like Mike,” but his passion and drive for the game of basketball are inspirational for my own passions in life.