stuff tagged with "motivation"
Mandatory work earns you a living. Voluntary work earns you a future.
Make the music that you need, for need will be over, soon enough.
I broke my streaks
In December, I challenged myself to knock out 100 sit-ups every day for 100 consecutive days.
Aside from a four-day battle with the worst flu Iâve ever had, Iâve wedged my toes under the couch and knocked out 100 sit-ups daily for 180 total days.
Five months after starting the sit-up challenge, I decided to step things up and add 100 burpees to this plan. For 39 straight days, I headed to my garage, unrolled a pink mat, turned on some pump up music, and did 100 burpees: drop to the floor, pop up into a squat, jump in the air, repeat.
At the start of June, my family joined a gym. Last Wednesday, I tried a Crossfit-esque class. It absolutely crushed me in the best possible way.
The next morning, I could barely walk. Every step had me limping and groaning.
I needed a break.
So I took one.
But here I am, two days later, and I still feel guilty about breaking my streaks. Even worse, I can't seem to muster up the courage to wedge my feet under the couch to start a new one.
Rest is a crucial part of any fitness plan. It lets muscles repair and grow, and it's included in every workout plan I've followed.
So why do I still feel like a failure?
I'm terrible at coping with failure1. Failure is a possible outcome to any activity, yet my default response to failure is to shut down and be completely paralyzed by it.
Instead of allowing myself to shut down this time, I am going to take the opportunity to reframe the situation:
I broke my sit-up streak. But I hit 130 straight days (and 180 total). Thatâs half a year of consistent effort and washboard abs!2
I broke my burpee streak. But I made it 39 days, and my chest hasn't felt this strong in years.
I paused both to rest, and now I feel better than I have in weeks.
None of that is failure. Thatâs fitness.
Time to get back at it. No drama, no guilt, no shame.
Just the mat, the music, and the work.
You can have results or excuses. Not both.
You want to make a record? Well, shut up and make a record. On what record label, though? Just make a record label. Like, donât ask, âHey, do you want my record?â Just make a record company. Find a recording studio. You know, get your friends to cut out some letters and make a picture sleeve. And there's nothing unique about thisâit was done from the doo-wop days of the '50s all the way through to punk rock. But, you know, you want to make a fanzine? Okay, just do it, and a week later thereâs five copies of Flaming Butt fanzine.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Defensive and Skeptical
đ a linked post to
david-smith.org »
—
originally shared here on
Where I have settled in my own work is to strive to keep some meaningful part of my mindset hungry and foolish. To continue to be open to new opportunities and eager to explore them. I donât want to end up miserly defending what I have already achieved, I want a professional life still rich with tackling interesting problems.
Dear Self; we need to talk about ambition
đ a linked post to
lesswrong.com »
—
originally shared here on
Like the programming path, the legible independent ambition path works for some people, but not you. The things you do when pushed to Think Big and Be Independent produce incidental learning at best, but never achieve anything directly. They canât, because you made up the goals to impress other people. This becomes increasingly depressing, as you fail at your alleged goals and at your real goal of impressing people.Â
So what do we do then? Give up on having goals? Only by their definition. What seems to work best for us is leaning into annoyance or even anger at problems in the world, and hate-fixing them.Â
Youâve always hated people being wrong, and it turns out a lot of things can be defined as âwrongâ if you have the right temperament. Womenâs pants have tiny pockets that wonât fit my phone? Wrong. TSA eating hours of my life for no gain? Wrong. Medical-grade fatigue? Wrong. People dying of preventable diseases? Extremely wrong. And wrong things are satisfying to fix.
Yesterday, I was doing the dishes when I saw a mostly eaten yogurt cup laying in the sink.
As I started rinsing it out, I wondered whether I should throw it in the garbage or the recycling bin.
I thought about this quiz game that my county has on their website where they present various household items and you have to say whether it can go in the recycling, compost, or garbage.
The last time I played it, I found myself just getting mad.
Mad that I was getting questions wrong.
Mad that I canât tell if this quiz is up to date with the latest recycling advice.
It occurred to me, while rinsing the cup, that I donât really like learning most things for fun. I learn them because I like to ensure I have the best chance at complying with the rules.
I like passing through the hoops that were laid out for me.
I liked school so much because there was a clearly defined metric for success and failure.
But as Iâm now 36 years old, success doesnât really get defined in that way anymore.
I am glad this article surfaced in my Instapaper queue this morning, because I think itâs mostly the article I wouldâve written for myself.
I really enjoyed the authorâs advice on determining authentic motivation, viewing procrastination as a workersâ strike, and realizing that your taste will often outpace your abilities.
Surround yourself with relentless humans. People who plan in decades, but live in moments. Train like savages, but create like artists. Obsess in work, relax in life. People who know this is finite, and choose to play infinite games. Find people going up mountains. Climb together.
'Anti-dopamine parenting' can curb a kid's craving for screens or sweets
đ a linked post to
npr.org »
—
originally shared here on
Studies now show that dopamine primarily generates another feeling: desire. "Dopamine makes you want things," says neuroscientist Anne-Noël Samaha. A surge of dopamine in your brain makes you seek out something, she explains. Or continue doing what you're doing. It's all about motivation.
And it goes even further: Dopamine tells your brain to pay particular attention to whatever triggers the surge.
It's alerting you to something important, Samaha says. "So you should stay here, close to this thing, because there's something here for you to learn. That's what dopamine does."
And here's the surprising part: You might not even like the activity that triggers the dopamine surge. It might not be pleasurable. "That's relatively irrelevant to dopamine," Samaha says.
When I was a kid, dopamine was the "happiness molecule".
These findings (which position dopamine as a mechanism which forces you to pay attention to things) cause much of our lifestyles to make more sense.
You keep doom scrolling not because you like it. You do it because your brain keeps telling you "this is important stuff, you should pay attention."
It's not an excuse, to be certain... but as the 20th century laureate G.I. Joe said: "knowing is half the battle."
How to Stop Being Lazy
đ a linked post to
iwillteachyoutoberich.com »
—
originally shared here on
Redefine Failure.
Know Your Worst-Case Scenario.
Stay Relevant.
Work Towards The Fear.
This post made me feel seen and understood. Time to get going.
Staying Productive on Distracted Days
đ a linked post to
calnewport.com »
—
originally shared here on
Cal Newport:
I donât normally spend much time reading information online, so I definitely noticed this morning the unusual degree to which I was distracted by breaking election news. This points to an interesting question that Iâve seen discussed in some articles in recent days: whatâs the best way to keep getting things done on truly distracting days?
My answer: donât.
To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past
đ a linked post to
wired.com »
—
originally shared here on
Can I go faster in my next marathon? I don't know, but I'll certainly try. All three of my kids, though, are realistic about what it means to try to get faster as the body gets weaker every day. They are excited about what they'll feel like at 18 or 28. They're climbing up the mountain as I'm walking down.