Tuesday, April 12, 2011

External Motivation


The opera is like a great bulldozer. All the things in my life that I'm supposed to get done are just pushed along, with no real progress being made on them. As opening weekend has come and gone, the bulldozer is slowing down. Soon, it will drive away into the distance, leaving a pile of missed deadlines and mediocre efforts that pass for schoolwork. I've been surveying the detritus being shoved upon me, and a part of me definitely considered throwing a rug over it and pretending it didn't exist.

Grades have long since ceased to motivate me. When the bar is set so low, it's difficult to care one way or another. I need a reasonable challenge to get me going, but slogging through old work wasn't sounding very appealing. Happily I married a wonderful person who cares about my success. She got me to get started on my stuff. I'm not through the pile, but I'm chipping away at it, and with a few more nights of this I might even catch up in the next week or so. Yes, carrots and sticks don't work well long term, but as far as I'm concerned, they have their place. So, thank you external motivation: for when you just can't make yourself do it.

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