Do what you want
Not what you feel, Joy Ride vol 27
In yet another running metaphor published on Monday, Kristin showed us how surrounding yourself with people making their dreams real can help you overcome your motivational inertia.
The heart of the piece is that we “underestimate the power of seeing people we know do work they care about.”
I agree and wanted to add an asterisk to the part where Kristin says, “The problem wasn’t the conditions. The problem was that I just didn’t want to go for a run.”
The problem was that I just didn’t didn’t want to go for a run.
This is honest and real and it’s wrong.
Or rather, misleading.
My guess is Kristin actually wanted to go for a run. She didn’t feel like going for a run.
The distinction is small but important. Because it hits on a universal truth: we all want to be the person who went for a run.
Not the person drowning in sweat, huffing and puffing, checking their phone, and dying for water. We don’t like the feeling of being the person struggling, wondering when it will be over.
It’s not that we don’t want the goals we’re after. It’s that the feeling of doing the things required of us to get there isn’t always great. In fact, it’s often sucky. Even brutal.
The whole “you don’t want it enough” hustle bro thing seems to me a naive way of looking at this. No one wants to feel crappy. We want the end feeling.
We want to be the person who wrote, published, sang, performed, drew, and edited.
It’s fair to admit that you want the end goal and dislike parts of the process of getting there. You can not feel like running today. AND want to run.
You can feel like not writing, not singing, not dancing. And still want to write, sing, and dance.
Both can be true. And you should still go for a run. Even if you don’t feel like it.
But not if you don’t want to. ;)
This week on The Road 🛣️
In Notes From The Road: What to do when you don’t feel like creating
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From the Vault: Debunk the myths. Motivation for when you’re feeling like you don’t have what it takes to make your Dream Project happen.
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