Motivating Life (in the Illuminating Television voice) (anyone?)

Goals are a funny thing. They may be short or long in term and cover a vast range of subjects. My first goal upon waking is usually to try and remember my dreams and write them down if they were pleasant. My second is to make it through at least one reading of my devotional while I use the bathroom without my mind wandering too far. I can say these things because I’m not dating anyone seriously and don’t fear him (hypothetical him) finding out I poop. (GASP!) And if, down the road, he decides to look through my blog and is grossed out I am confident that he will still like me since he was enamored enough to stalk my blog. If not, get out.

But many a goal reaches farther down the road. I finally have concrete career goals that make me very excited. I have long term health goals that keep me pretty motivated right now. Then I have the in-betweeners. I’ll explain. I had a discussion with my friend Tammy a few months ago about why we do the things we do. For example, reading the news, going out for a nice meal, playing a new game, all the little things that keep us occupied on a daily basis. Why do we care about trying new things? What is our motivation?

Tammy and I realized that some of the motivation for what we do stems from our desire to be well-rounded. Adaptable. I want my family, friends, kids, (let’s be honest) husband to be excited to show me new things and take me new places. I want them to be confident in the fact that if they spring dinner guests on me I will be able to entertain and feed them gracefully. I want to expose myself to enough situations so that when someone decides to surprise me with an adventure they are too busy making it incredible to worry about whether or not I can handle it. We are very conscious of how our decisions right now are shaping who we will be in five, ten, twenty years.

I don’t think you should ever do something simply to impress someone. That’s stupid and it will not make you happy. I don’t think you should copy what someone else does because you haven’t taken the time to invest in yourself and find out what you love. I don’t think you should model your life around other people’s expectations. But I do think you should use every chance you get, every inkling of motivation, each “swift kick”, to expand your experiences. If a friend loves a sport, I want to try it with them. If my family loves a certain genre of books or a television show enough to invite me to experience it with them, you better believe I’m going to try it out. I have found some of my most beloved hobbies and interests this way. And I have been blessed by other people taking an interest in what I love as well. Give and take, baby.

With this newly defined motivation, I’ve made a few changes recently. I learned at a bible study that one way to keep yourself accountable is to consistently tell yourself what you want. For instance, I want uninterrupted time with Jesus each day. I want to go on a walk every evening. I want to be healthy so that I can still enjoy all this beautiful world has to offer in fifty years. I could go on and on. What do you want to do? What kind of person do you want to be? Tell yourself and go do it.

Char thoughts:

- I love crappy movies - I’ve never liked the pumpkin and apple cider smells often associated with fall, but this year I can’t get enough - Healthcare bills suck - If anyone wealthy reads this I’m more than happy to be your personal chef - Jesus reigns