Motivation

 

ust like ‘one man’s trash is another man’s gold’ or ‘one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor’ (substitute wo-man as necessary), one man’s fear can be another man’s motivation. Probably not a phrase that’ll catch on, but it fits me. Some people are actually more afraid of what they might accomplish rather than a fear of failure. Think about it.

 

It’s the unknown that drives some people to achieve. What’s out there? What’s possible? What am I capable of? These are the thoughts that motivate people like me, and just scare others.

 

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a fairly positive person. I believe that honesty of self and being self-aware is an important personal trait that everyone should sincerely strive to achieve. People lie to themselves all the time in all aspects of daily life. Generally it’s in the negative sense; I’m not good enough. I’ll never fit in. I could never do that. I’m not smart enough. Then we have the other less obvious negatives; No one will ever notice. I’m better than you. You’re not worth my time. I’m too busy. Then still you have those on the other side of the common sense pool who convince themselves that they really do look sexy in orange Speedos. These are just lies we tell ourselves in justification of our circumstances.

 

There’s a significant difference between lying to yourself and honest understanding. For instance, I’d make a lousy marine biologist. That’s the truth. I have no interest in that field whatsoever. Am I telling myself I’m not good enough to work in that field? Not at all. I just know it wouldn’t be a prudent career choice given my personal interests. That’s honesty. On the other hand, if I was interested in that field of work but kept telling myself that the college courses were too tough, or I wasn’t smart enough or good enough to achieve what I wanted to become, or worse, believed some other person telling me those things, then I’d be qualifying my failure in lies of the worst kind. Stop lying to yourself and don’t believe the lies of others. You’ll be amazed the places you can go when you decide to tune up your attitude and quit digging potholes. Okay, enough yadda yadda about personal improvement.

 

Motivation can sometimes come in ways you wouldn’t normally consider typical. The way the story came to me was in itself the motivation to write it. That was strange enough. But there’s something else that keeps me going. There were (and still are) many times while I was writing that I felt like I was part of something much bigger. I would maybe describe it as softly riding a hugely powerful, endless and massive wave. There’s a tremendous amount of force and power and energy behind me that I can’t necessarily see, but can definitely feel - nudging me along. There were also isolated instances that individually may have seemed insignificant, but when viewed from a point farther down the road, painted part of a larger picture. As the project went forward, it seemed that financial opportunities would always pop up just in time to keep us going for a little while longer. Coincidence is only veiled truth, I do believe.

 

Even though I don’t know where this road will eventually lead, there is definitely an immense and undeniable force behind me. Sometimes I only catch a fleeting glimpse of what I think its real purpose might be. As time reveals all truth, we’ll just have to keep the helmets on and the family buckled up. Kick the tires and light the fires!

 

- Ranse Parker