I’m very self-motivated. How did I become this way? Some thoughts:
1. Self-entertainment
I’m easily bored, so it seems that my creative activity is in order to make things and life fun for myself!
For myself, I treat photography as fun and playing! A child plays for the sake of playing which means they don’t need external sources of motivation.
Therefore it seems the lesson is this:
Avoid boredom by figuring out how to entertain yourself (through active activity).
2. Pursuing deeper “truthiness”
All common knowledge or wisdom makes no sense to me. Thus for myself my personal pursuit is to discover deeper “truthiness” in life. My personal truth isn’t truth to others; but trying to discover a deeper degree of truth is what motivates me.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously
The moment once you try to be “serious” you become trapped. Being “serious” means to have others “respect” you. This is something you cannot control.
Better to strive to please yourself, to have fun, and enjoy the process than to desire to gain the applause of others.
4. Onto the next one
Once you make something, don’t wait around for people to like your stuff or view it. Don’t strive to maximize your views and “engagement”. Instead, once you make something just quickly move onto the next one!
For example I’ve intentionally NOT looked at any of my personal metrics for the last 3+ years, and I’ve become 300x more productive as a consequence. Probably 300x happier too!
5. Physical motivation
Much of “motivation” is physical. In fact, motivation can only be physical.
So some ideas:
- When you need more motivation, go on a walk around the block.
- When you need to get pumped up, get down on the ground and do some pushups. Or find a bar and do some chinups.
- Listen to music which pumps you up, and always when in doubt drink more black coffee.
- If you’re super exhausted, take a nap somewhere!
Conclusion
Enjoy your life, and find satisfaction by pleasing yourself. This means become more “selfish”. Being selfish isn’t evil. The more selfish you become, the more motivated you will become, and as a consequence, you’ll become happier, and you will naturally help others more!
Always put yourself first.
ERIC