Two For Tuesday

Two ways to motivate yourself:

Give yourself a deadline. Or ask a friend to give you one and hold you accountable.

Withhold a reward from yourself until you do something.

People ask me all the time how I make myself write. Since I don't have a direct boss or even a specific timetable most of the time a lot of what I do has to be self-directed. But the problem with self direction is that you are apt to let yourself off the hook with excuses like it's that time of the month, I have a headache, I need to clean the house, I need to go shopping, I'm tired, I'd rather watch a movie, etc.

So I have found that I have to motivate myself or else I'll never get anything done. Giving myself assignments and a deadline to complete them as if an authority figure gave it to me has been extremely motivating. I've reached a place where I can't stand to let myself down. The more you do it, the more normal that will feel.

And for the times when I'm tempted to quit and go do something fun, I tell myself that if I just do (fill in the blank) I can do that fun thing. Ie, write one more scene and you can have dinner. Write this blog post and you can get a coffee. Finish this devotion and you can watch that movie. Etc.

It's not easy to hold your own feet to the fire, but it's definitely possible. Find what works on you and use it against yourself.