Self-Motivation

Self-motivation is a habit.

Wait.

Self-motivation is a routine.

Wait.

Maybe it's a little bit of both.

It is, but it isn't.

Self-motivation is a habit born of routine. You have things to do. You don't want to do them. They can wait. You can procrastinate. You'll get to them... eventually. Except you won't, you don't, you didn't... And the things just keep piling up. Because you let them. And now there are more and more things to do and they'll be more difficult because you've let them sit for so long so aside from having to do them, you have to be reminded about how you didn't do them because you're lazy and it's a shameful cycle that's repeated ad nauseum.

So you try to build a routine that keeps you from procrastinating. And you try to take baby steps towards efficiency, towards a willingness to push through the desire to put it off and latch on to the little voice saying, "Just get it done. Check it off the list. Go and do it."

And this routine turns into habit and you go through a time period of getting things done and feeling good about yourself and living well and being that person. The person who is put together. The person who you like looking at in the mirror.

But then you become complacent and fall back into the habit of not sticking to the routine that built the better habit.

And you write a blog post about it because it's another way to procrastinate.

So in realizing that you've broken the good habit, you've reinforced the bad habit by neglecting the good habit.

Well...

Shoots...