Flip the Switch

Notes to self on self-motivation

I have a lot of ideas.

They’re not Nobel-Prize-winning ideas or anything—they fall into this nebulous category of Ideas That Are Interesting in Theory But Will Require Execution To Test How Good They Really Are.

This fact frustrates me a lot because this means the % of projects completed against project ideas created is quite low. Even though I haven’t resolved to complete each and every one of them, just knowing that I've had many, many other ideas that I've abandoned stays stuck in my mind, like a chewed-up piece of bubble gum that slowly cements its place the longer it sits.

As I get older, my mental catalog of things I've imagined and never created brings me down, deeper and deeper into a realm of self-pity—ultimately unhelpful both to myself and to those around me.

I want to work because people have put faith in me to help them and it is my responsibility to follow through.

I want to work because I am lucky enough to have work, to have crafted abilities and skills that will provide support in helping others reach their own life goals.

I want to work because I want to create value for people, to help people in ways they want and not in ways they don’t.

But I don’t always feel like working.

To “Flip the Switch” means that daily I must remind myself why I choose to work “independently”—because there are moments when I’m too tired, too hungry, too lazy, too whatever. Those moments are fleeting and should not determine what gets accomplished if I’m going to be reliable and create value in any significant way.

Creating change and providing value means I have to do it even when I don’t feel like it.

No one’s going to flip the switch for me.