I enjoy reading. I used to read mostly science fiction and fantasy. Some of my favorites include The Lord of the Rings as well as Ender's Game. (I've seen the Lord of the Rings films but I haven't yet seen the new Enders Game film). But as I get older I have found enjoyment from books that help make me a better person. Maybe it is a parenting book. Perhaps a teaching book. In the last few years one author that has really inspired me has been John Maxwell. He has written a number of books and I have only read a few but they are wonderful resources about leadership. Much of the stuff I have learned I share with my students in one way or another to try and get them to think about their impact on the world around them. Because as John Maxwell says "everything is leadership".
I just started one of his books yesterday and am already challenged and inspired (that's always a good place to be). Here is an excerpt of him quoting an article he read in a doctor's office long before Nike coined this trademark phrase: Just Do It. We hear it almost every day; sigh, sigh, sigh. I just can't get myself motivated to...(lose weight, test my blood sugar, etc.) And we hear an equal number of sighs from diabetes educators who can't get their patients motivated to do the right things for their diabetes and health. We have news for you. Motivation is not going to strike you like lightning. And motivation is not something that someone else - nurse, doctor, family member - can bestow or force on you. The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation and then guess what. After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it. Motivation is like love and happiness. It's a by-product. When you're actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up and zaps you when you least expect it. As Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner says, "You're more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action." So act! Whatever it is you know you should do, do it."
Wow...
How many times have you thought to yourself that you would do something later...when you had the motivation. Maybe you didn't say that out loud but you thought it. I believe many of our young people are caught in this motivation trap. They have a selfish attitude that they will do what they want rather than what they should and will wait until they are motivated to do the things they already know they should be doing (of course this applies to many adults as well). Most people (myself included) could list to you a whole host of things that they should be doing but just aren't motivated to do. Why do we sit and wait for some mysterious force to happen upon us before we get off our buts and get going? It is as if we are perfectly happy letting what we do be dictated by the whims of our feelings.
I don't know all the answers but I do know that nothing changes by people complaining. If I want my students to have a just do it attitude then I have to model that each and every day. If I want my children to understand that motivation is cheap but action means something then I have to be living that out every day. I know I have a long ways to go to even be close to where I want to be in this. But I'm going to do something about it. I don't feel like it...but I'm going to anyway.
I just started one of his books yesterday and am already challenged and inspired (that's always a good place to be). Here is an excerpt of him quoting an article he read in a doctor's office long before Nike coined this trademark phrase: Just Do It. We hear it almost every day; sigh, sigh, sigh. I just can't get myself motivated to...(lose weight, test my blood sugar, etc.) And we hear an equal number of sighs from diabetes educators who can't get their patients motivated to do the right things for their diabetes and health. We have news for you. Motivation is not going to strike you like lightning. And motivation is not something that someone else - nurse, doctor, family member - can bestow or force on you. The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation and then guess what. After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it. Motivation is like love and happiness. It's a by-product. When you're actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up and zaps you when you least expect it. As Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner says, "You're more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action." So act! Whatever it is you know you should do, do it."
Wow...
How many times have you thought to yourself that you would do something later...when you had the motivation. Maybe you didn't say that out loud but you thought it. I believe many of our young people are caught in this motivation trap. They have a selfish attitude that they will do what they want rather than what they should and will wait until they are motivated to do the things they already know they should be doing (of course this applies to many adults as well). Most people (myself included) could list to you a whole host of things that they should be doing but just aren't motivated to do. Why do we sit and wait for some mysterious force to happen upon us before we get off our buts and get going? It is as if we are perfectly happy letting what we do be dictated by the whims of our feelings.
I don't know all the answers but I do know that nothing changes by people complaining. If I want my students to have a just do it attitude then I have to model that each and every day. If I want my children to understand that motivation is cheap but action means something then I have to be living that out every day. I know I have a long ways to go to even be close to where I want to be in this. But I'm going to do something about it. I don't feel like it...but I'm going to anyway.