A dad's advice to himself and his kids.

Effortless.

That’s an idea, isn’t it?    What if everything you wanted could be had effortlessly?   What if it wasn’t a struggle to…figure out how to lose weight, to be nice to your kids, make money or write that novel?

The key is not to try harder, to work more, and to struggle more fervently against resistance and distraction.   Engagement and effort is a big deal, it helps a lot.

But really–truly–what matters in reality is none of that.  It’s finding out what you’d really run through walls for.  If you’re trying to use a false motivator to try to get after, it’s never gonna work.  I don’t care about ‘being healthy for my kids,’ in any real way.   I do care about ‘being a sexy bastard.’

So when I used ‘being healthy for Jack’ or ‘setting a good example,’ I would flail around relosing and gaining the same 12 pounds cyclically.  All the time.   I trended down in 2008, but not by much. Now?  Being a sexy bastard matters.  It’s a Real Goal instead of a goal I think I should have.  So it’s easy as hell to pass up the cheeseburgers, and get on the goddamn eliptical.  I’m losing a solid 4# a week, week in and week out.  I’ll hit my long term goal in March or April of next year.  And…it’s exciting.  I feel WAY better than I have, more alive.  More ready to go to war, to battle.

It’s takes no mental energy because I’ve learned what it is that I really want.  Not what society thinks I should want, but what I do want. Big difference.  Seismic.

So–think about it–what really motivates you?  Not “what do you think you should be motivated by,” but “what are you motivated by.”  Don’t be embarrassed about it, don’t minimize it, embrace it…let it be your muse and use it as long as you can.   It’s a lot more ‘noble’ to be motivated by the health and wellness part of life than it is to want to be a head turning seductive and sexy bastard.

But I’m not noble.  I will do my duty and honor my commitments, but I’m unable to care about what I ‘should’ care about.  However, what I ‘should’ care about will benefit from me being better, stronger faster.

I gotta know:  what truly motivates you?