One of the hardest things to do when starting a project is motivating one's self to actually do it and stick it through to the end. Not all people have this problem. There are those who are commonly referred to as a "go-getter", someone who is not only able but willing and driven to do whatever it is they have to do. For most, however, it takes a specific stimulus to motivate us. For example, those looking to kick a smoking habit do it because their health demands it. Another example would be someone cleaning because they can no longer stand the mess. There is a switch in our brains that flips when we reach a certain point where we can no longer ignore or put off whatever it is we've been needing to do. The severity of that switch differs greatly from one issue to the next, but it's present and a driving factor behind even the smallest of choices we make.
Writers will often tell you about writer's block, a phenomenon in which inspiration will suddenly halt and progress on a story can no longer be made. Sometimes it's externally-induced, pushed upon a writer by a busy life or a traumatic event. Other times it's internal, stemming from an author's inherent dissatisfaction with a story, plot, or character. Overcoming that lack of inspiration can seem impossible. An insurmountable wall that can never be overcome unless "the muse" happens to wander in. This reliance upon exterior influences can be crippling.
Unfortunately, a lack of motivation is not limited to writers. Everyone suffers from it to an extent. Dishes pile up because we don't feel like doing them. Laundry doesn't get washed because it's too much effort to do so. Meals become take-out from a local place because who has time to cook? We look for reasons to excuse our lack of motivation because it's too difficult to face the fact that it isn't just the outside world in control of our actions. Some people call it laziness, but it's more than just that. It's a symptom of a greater malaise and it's one we, as a society, have to face to defeat.
In the late 90's there was a great little sci-fi TV show called Babylon 5. In 1996, an episode titled "Point of No Return" aired. The show on the whole was fantastic and terrible at the same time, with complex plots and what were, at the time, revolutionary computer generated graphics done on a shoestring budget. What made this episode stand out in my mind was a conversation between two of the characters. Londo Mollari, the Centauri ambassador is speaking with the widow of his world's fallen emperor, Lady Morella. She is a prophet, a seer, and he asks her to the station to seek a vision for him. What she says to him has always been telling to me.
Londo: "All I have ever wanted is to serve our people. I need to see what is before me. If I should escape it, or embrace it. If there is any longer a choice." Lady Morella: "There is always choice. We say there is no choice only to comfort ourselves with the decision we have already made."
Londo and Lady Morella, Babylon 5 Season 3, Episode 9, "Point of No Return"
This really struck me as profound. It's one of the most common things we utter to ourselves all the time. "I have no choice." From the smallest of things to the biggest life choices, we assume we have no options but the one we've chosen. Many times those choices are terrible, and so we seek comfort from the thought that the choice isn't ours to make, or that it's the lesser of two evils. With motivation, however, we pretend that we aren't even making a choice. "I can't because..." It's excuses, and we forgive ourselves not just because we're the ones making the excuses, but because ultimately we're the ones judging them, too.
To put it in more terms easier to relate to, I'm going to use myself as an example. I post in this blog five days a week, Monday through Friday, just like a job. I don't always have a topic when I sit down to type, and I don't always feel like talking about what happened at my day job, what I learned from my school work, or what my opinions are on whatever global catastrophe happens to be in the news. There are days I'd rather just curl up in bed with my phone and look at cat videos, window shop for things I'll never be able to afford unless I win the lotto, or nap. Sometimes I'd rather play a video game or craft something. I still sit down in this chair, and write, even though I don't always want to. I motivate myself to do so not because I must, or because it actually is a job, but because I feel it's important for my career to have an established presence online. How can people trust my skills as an editor or a writer if they can't see a portfolio of my work?
I choose to do what I consider the responsible thing, and post whether I feel like it or not. I read my required course reading even though it's boring at times because I feel I need to know the content. I turn in assignments even when I'm not completely convinced I did them right because I'm never completely convinced I did them right and if I wait to reach that goal I'll never turn them in at all. I motivate myself to do dishes even though I hate it, or laundry even though it's annoying, because these are things that must be done if one is to be a responsible adult. I make sure I do what I have to before what I want to, because I want to set a good example for my kids. I choose, because I'm the one who has to. I step up, because I'm the one who should.
We have to take responsibility for ourselves, because in the end, no one else ever will.