Tag Archives: motivation

Frankenstein, Can You Help Me Now?

According to my calculations, I remain a post behind while still posting every day.  Quite frankly, I am tired of calculating and tired of beginning each post with an apology for being late.  I suspect it becomes tiresome for my readers too.  So let’s just say, I skipped Saturday’s post, yesterday was Sunday’s post, and today is Monday.  For one reason, about all I am up to right now is a Monstrous Monday Post.

I just spent a goodly amount of time looking for a picture I saw on Facebook this morning only to realize once I found it that I still do not know how to download a picture on my Chromebook.  I am so technologically inept.  I guess it’s back to the Media Library for me.

He looks about as brain dead as I feel.

Who doesn’t love Frankenstein’s monster?  I suppose some terrorized villagers, and little Marie’s parents.  The actress who played little Marie, by the way, loved Boris Karloff, and he was very sweet to her.  I love stories like that.

Yes, I am a monster.

I go in a different direction by including this picture of my shadow I took last October.  I believe I was in a parking lot going towards a Halloween party.  No parties for me this year, I’m afraid.  I am still on the fence about purchasing candy and greeting trick or treaters.

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

Here is a graphic depiction of my current mood.  Oh, please, nobody try tough love on me and tell me to quit whining and Do Something.  I KNOW the benefits of activity and realize motivation usually follows action.  I have a whole list in my head of things to do.  I hope to commit it to paper and begin to actually do the things.

Don’t yank my chain!

I end with Frankenstein’s monster.  I am not sure what he is doing in this picture, but let’s pretend he is pulling a chord that will release a floodgate of ambition and motivation for me.  I’ll get to work!  I’ll put up more decorations!  I’ll have Mohawk Valley Adventures!  I’ll write blog posts about them!  Do you believe me, or do you suppose it is all a monstrous lie?

 

I Try to Make a Lame Post Friday Post

This is the point on a Friday evening when I usually say to hell with it, I’ll make another late Lame Post Friday post.  That may yet happen today.  However, I am sitting on my couch, episode of Columbo on the television, glass of wine nearby, Tablet in hand, trying.

That is another trick I try on myself.  I have talked about the trick of doing Just One Thing.  For example, just wash one dish, put away one thing, write one journal entry.  A trick I may not have mentioned is that of Just Try.  For example, when I say, I can’t wash the dishes! I can’t go running! I can’t write anything!  I say to myself, Just Try.

Sometimes it doesn’t work.  Of course sometimes it does.  I mean, when it comes to the dishes, I can usually manage to get them organized, fill the dishpan with hot, soapy water, wash one dish… and it goes on from there.  Full disclosure:  often I get the dishes washed but do not scrub the sink afterwards.  And I quite frankly never dry them. I say why waste effort on what patience will accomplish.

However,  in most cases, washing dishes and writing are two disparate activities with very little in common. Once you wash a dish, it seems a very easy action to wash another.  Just because you write one word or even sentence is no guarantee that more words will be forthcoming.

On the other hand, I have gotten over 200 words with this nonsense.  I say Happy Lame Post Friday.

 

In Search of Oomph

I am back to last week’s malady: posting the next morning for the day before.  I just couldn’t make myself do it.  Full disclosure:  I did not try very hard.  Let us not delve into the sordid reasons why I was having a Bad Attituesday (OK, they were not exactly sordid, but I felt the need to be dramatic just then) (regular readers will understand) (did you notice how I refrained from calling you Shirley?  That was what I first typed in) (I don’t have to explain that joke, do I?) (but I digress).

So I guess this is going to be a post with lots of parenthetical comments, to disguise the fact that, as usual, I got nuthin’.  In fact, I had a few things I could type about yesterday, but, as I mentioned, I lacked the oomph.  I think that is one thing writers need above all other things: Oomph.  Where exactly does one get oomph?

Ah yes, I was afraid somebody would say that it comes from within.  I have known for years that motivation follows action. You can sit there and say, “I just don’t feel like it,” or you can start to do whatever “it” is, and soon you will feel motivated to continue.  Well, if that magic formula worked every time, we would not continue to feel so discouraged when we just didn’t feel like doing it, now, would we?  Because it cannot be denied that it does not always work.

However, today it seems to be working out just fine for me.  Here I am over 250 words.  It could be the addition of coffee that is responsible.  Or it could be that these are, I admit it, not particularly inspired words.  I was going to say “interesting,” but how do I know what other people are interested in?  To each his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow.  If you have read thus far, thank you for playing.  I hope you’ll tune in later today for what might turn out to be yet another Wuss-out Wednesday Post.

 

No Write, No Run, But Wrist

Oh, it is SO Wrist to Forehead Sunday! I can’t write a post! I don’t want to write a post! I don’t want to write ANYTHING!

OK, got that out of my system. As usual, once I sit down at the keyboard, words come out. Maybe not good words, but I can at least edit out the bad words (you know like %$^#%$^@$(@ and *&*&^$%##!).

I read somewhere that motivation follows action, not the other way around. In other words, if you wait till you are “in the mood” (with apologies to Glenn Miller) to do a distasteful chore, you will never do it. However, once you begin said chore, you find it is not so bad after all. You happily do that and twelve other distasteful chores you have been putting off.

Unfortunately, sometimes it does not work. This morning, for example, I did the dishes and it did not lead me to sweep and mop the kitchen floor. I made a salad and chopped some vegetables for my lunch tomorrow. I’m sure I have praised in this blog the therapeutic benefits of chopping vegetables. Today, not so much.

I fear that if I tried to go running today it would be an unpleasant plod. I had previously agreed to let myself off the hook, due to temperatures below 20 degrees. Then I logged onto WordPress and saw a blogger I follow had published a post about how he went running in 8 degree weather. EIGHT DEGREES! What kind of a wimp am I? (It was Return of the Modern Philosopher , if you want to know.)

So that is the story of my life so far: no writing, no running. Well, if I have learned anything at my age, it is that these moods pass. However, that thought is more in the category of Middle-aged Musings. I’ll hold it for Monday. Hope to see you then.