“Motivation is a lot like showering. It’s useful, but it doesn’t last, so you need to repeat it often.” – Zig Ziglar
I hope their employees are in the habit or they might read this euphemistically! (Barnes&Noble bathroom)
I made three very specific commitments for Lent this year. One month later they have all become habits. That should satisfy the “28 day” folks. It really works.
Yes, I was motivated to get started. You need motivation – a feeling that it is no longer optional to move towards your cause, purpose or goal. I was deeply motivated, as a matter of fact, both personally and professionally to break new ground on some long-held beliefs, fears and wants.
Without that energy for a new way forward I can certainly see how the gap between motivation and habit would be very hard to jump. If you don’t have a burning drive that you are ready to be honest about – for me, dependence, capacity and production – then this is not for you. If you do have that drive and you’re hanging back out of fear, it’s time to snap out of it and get moving. Really.
Lent was convenient timing. I happen to be a person of faith and I am grateful for the invitation to dedicate six weeks to renewal, reflection and re-orientation that my church provides. That, of course, is available to us any time and all the time. Lent is just a construct, like everything else we’ve invented.
What’s more accurate and more honest is that I was sick of myself. I was tired of thinking about it, wondering about it, getting frustrated about it, on and on. I was done with that phase and ready for a new one. Maybe Lent was divine intervention, the right opportunity at the right time. I won’t argue that as a very real possibility. It’s also true that, living in the first world as we do, we have choice and I made a decision to exercise mine.
It’s my turn. And it’s your turn, too.
