Passion for croissants

Finding motivation seems to be a trend on this blog, perhaps because it is a recent theme in my life. A French teacher in high school told me I was unmotivated and since then I have questioned my drive to succeed every time it slows down just a little. No, I was not motivated my senior year of high school to do well in an unruly French class. But that doesn’t mean I am wholly unwilling to get my ass moving!

I happen to know some pretty awesome people. One is a senior member at his company at 24 years old, one is about to enter medical school at Duke University and others are in nursing school, sous chefs and generally following their dreams. I thought I would conduct an interview/survey to see where young people get their motivation these days. Here is what I got:

I just try to be better every day. For myself. And I have faith that if I do that, good things will eventually happen.

I just had a lot of things I was interested in and I piled them on so now I don’t have time to not be motivated.

My job challenges me every day and I help a lot of people which makes me happy. I constantly have to think while working and I am striving to become an actuary because it would be a huge accomplishment. I don’t do things if I don’t like them.

There are things that I am passionate about that keep me interested in what I do, and drive me to dive deeper into the field. I get to work on stuff that I find fascinating, and I’ll get to study it more in depth soon. Also I strive to do things that make me feel good about myself. Yoga makes me feel fit and proud of myself. Also doing new things that are kind of scary — like getting dressed up and being on stage — make me feel great about myself afterwards. And when I feel good, I can be more motivated as well as confident, friendly, energetic, and just overall happy 

I think job wise I get my motivation from other people around me. When I see them accomplishing things it makes me want to accomplish things too. It’s almost kinda competitive. I get motivation in life from the people that I love and love me and from a feeling of a higher purpose to serve God and his people well.

So, from what I can gather from this market research, the key to everlasting motivation is to love what you do and to love yourself.

I always knew love was the answer.

I will continue my quest for that butterfly tummy feeling in the big wide business world and in the mean time, work on feeling that way about myself. For a while I was trying to do one thing a day that sacred me and I did start to see a difference in my life, in the way I challenged myself to be my best version possible in any situation. Perhaps that should be reinstated into my daily routine.

And maybe I will take a French class and see if my passion for croissants has improved my motivation in that arena. I’ll keep you updated on that one.

 

To be honest

I had a thought today. It was at work, right after my lunch break of reading Porter Magazine , eating some tortellini and feeling an oncoming afternoon slump when it hit me. I really hate the 8 hour work day. It is not for me! I cannot be a productive worker for 8 specific hours during the day. I know some people thrive that way, but not this gal.

I then started thinking, how did this accepted norm come to be? It has it origins in the industrial age, when child labor was common and workers petitioned to shorten their 16 hour work days to 10 or 12 hours. Looking at it that way, an 8 hour work day doesn’t sound too bad… But to be honest, that is not how I look at it. I do not have a job that requires physical labor to make money for industrial giants. My job requires I be present in case someone needs me. To be fair, I do have projects to be working on, things to get done throughout everyday; I stay busy, I do my job.

Am I lazy for feeling this way? Or really unmotivated? Would I feel differently if I were at a job I was truly passionate about? Or do others feel my pain? Maybe this formula is just not meant for me. But is that because I am of a generation that is used to having it fairly easy (by which I mean, no child labor, microwaves, etc.), or is this why more and more people are starting to work for themselves?

Maybe in the future I’ll have an answer to all of those questions. For now, I will dream of an afternoon nap and try to take a walk whenever I feel that I can’t do any more work but it’s only 2 pm. After all, it is not my aversion to work that is causing this; I enjoy working hard on a project and seeing the result come about after dedication. I just see the need for a different formula to find my productive sweet spot.

Am I a ridiculous twenty something? Does anyone have answers to my questions? I do have a lot…