Losing the Keys to Motivation

I think I have stumbled upon some sort of corollary to the Keys to Motivation that I shared with everyone at the end of January.  If you recall, I provided everyone with the GFF "keys to motivation" that we have found seem to work when we really need to get something done.

To review, they are:

1. Set yourself up to do something for a bunch of people by a certain time at a certain place and TELL them you what you are doing and when you will be there.
2. Let the weather motivate (hey, it works for farmers).
3. Leave it OFF of your "to do" list.
4. Use it to get out of something that you think is even less appealing.
5. Have something or somebody prevent you from doing it.

As I find myself writing this blog, I may have recognized one way that I take the keys of motivation OUT of the ignition.  In fact, sometimes it feels like I did more than that.  I took the keys out of the ignition, walked them to the nearest crematorium, threw those keys into the kiln - and then set it to extra well done.

The removal of the keys to motivation is simply this:

Have a plan for a blog you want to write.

Or, if you do not write blogs and want to apply this to whatever you want to be UNmotivated to do:

Make sure you have a plan to do that thing.

Yep, that's it.

Those keys get too hot to handle as soon as I get it written down on a piece of paper that I want to write something on a particular topic.  The keys turn into molten slag as soon as I commit the ultimate sin of opening up a file, typing a title, and slapping in a few notes so I know what I wanted to do with it later.

For some odd reason, those blogs just sit there - languishing in the virtual pile of "draft blogs" while other, less well thought out (and clearly much less important) blogs come pouring out of my brain, onto the keyboard, and then out into the blogosphere.

Ok.  Let's be honest here.  The truth is, a completely "on the fly" blog rarely turns out to be my best writing.  In fact, a completely unplanned entry on a topic I've done little to no contemplation on usually turns out to be something like...oh... this blog.

Well, that's not true either - because this topic has been on my mind on and off lately.  Since a big part of my off-farm job now is to write, it is important that I figure out what motivates me to write and what seems to block me from writing.  And one of those blocks is to put a topic on a list of things I will write about.  And, as I said, it gets worse if I open a file and put the barest minimum in there as a placeholder.  

Suddenly, it becomes the millstone around my neck.  It sits there and reminds me that THIS BLOG needs to be written.  And, I will drag that thing around with me until...

One day, the rope breaks.  And I forget all about the fact that I was going to write on that topic.  

Then I rediscover it one day and I don't let myself fully remember that I had once planned to do this thing.  I simply...

Start to do it.

See rule #3 to the Keys of Motivation.

Huh.  There it is.  It really works.

Have a great day and a good week everyone!