Viktor came up with the theory of Logotherapy which in a nutshell has 3 parts:
- Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
- Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.
- We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable suffering
https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/...
Unfortunately, crippling depression and a looming feeling of nihilism are sucking most of my motivation away.
In my younger and more foolish days, and inspired by Steve Jobs, I tried to literally live life as if every day were my last in an effort to be productive. I discovered that if it were my last day on earth, I would much rather spend the time joking around with friends or family rather than working, and I fell into a depressive funk.
Abstract thoughts about death, while depressive, don't motivate me. What does end up "motivating" me are developing habits. In order to develop habits, I use pathetically achievable goals:
I find goals to be counterproductive unless they're simply achieved and a matter of habit. For instance, "go to the gym and do nothing" became "go to the gym and walk on the treadmill" when I became habituated to showing up at the gym. Now I'm lifting regularly and I feel off if I don't get a chance to go work out.
Audacious goals, on the other hand, are demotivating because there's too much chance of failure. If I hold myself to lifting certain weights, I may even end up getting injured. But now I'm happy simply showing up, doing what I have the capacity for, whether it's walking, stretching, or lifting. I can (and will) come back if I have an off day.
Scott Adams talks about something similar in Goals vs Systems[1]. A goal of writing a book is much harder to achieve than a goal of typing a little bit in the morning. Ironically, the latter may be the best route to the former...as long as you don't think about it too much :)
[1]: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-systems
This. I was chatting with a friend and he asked me about how I get motivated. My answer is that I abstract away the motivation with a process.
For instance, I used to work out a lot when I was younger and then stopped.. But when I wanted to work out recently, what I did to start the habit wasn't to go to the gym because that's a "new thing", an action and I'm a "procrastinator"..
I incorporated working out with the act of taking a shower and they became one, so each time I was about to take a shower, I'd do a few hundred push ups, then get in the shower and do a 100 successive squats and that was it. It's not much but it beats nothing. If I imagined I had to wear clothes, go out somewhere, work out, then come back and take a shower, I wouldn't do it..
As a side note, when I was in college, my commute was 6 hours and arriving late to class. Then they added a university bus. I had to take a bus to get to the Uni bus and I had to wake up early, so I said "why not work out while I'm at it". Woke up at 4h30 and a good work out, shower and food, and about 30 minutes of review study. The energy I had through the whole day was amazing.
To take the gym example further, I realized that I needed to be doing more cardio (any cardio at all), but the treadmill was the most boring activity on earth. I could only spend a few minutes on it before getting bored. To combat this, I started listening to an audio language lesson in a foreign language that I'd been meaning to learn while walking on the treadmill.
Pretty soon, I ended up spending 20+ minute chunks of time on the treadmill while learning my target language, which amplified both of the habits that I wanted.
Looks at the example projects made, the reviews from the students. If any seem interesting then just dive right in.
My friend's learning from the ground-up and he's using Code Academy (https://www.codecademy.com). If you're a little more serious about this, you could also look into Udacity's Nanodegree program.
It's how I started learning when I was trying to do it around my job, I eventually left to work on learning to code full time.
Play around with python and/or numpy for this (lots of tutorials online) for slurping data from a text file and processing it to generate those summaries. Start playing around with this to get the basics of the language, writing functions, conditional logic and loops.
Hell, you could even play with programming macros in Excel (not my preference, but it is readily available in most offices, and, if like mine, you'll have lots of reports in Excel already). The point here is not to pick you favorite or final language, but to get some practice with manipulating data, consuming input, producing output, and using logic effectively.
Honestly, it's the belief that communities, at the level of grassroots, can be empowered to be further engaged in the social discourses of their society. I have a strong belief that while our government powers are playing politics, families who are living in impoverished neighborhoods can be encouraged to be active agents of change and can move populations. I'm working with a couple non-profit organizations (that are around the world) that do exactly this and the results we see are incredibly encouraging and endearing. Not only are youth getting excited and working in their communities, their siblings and parents are also getting involved. If it wasn't for this work (of which I spend hours _after work_ partaking in), I don't know what would motivate me.
EDIT: Just to clarify, this empowerment comes through education at the level of the neighborhood. Looking at this practically, it means training our younger future generations and providing them the tools they need to succeed (getting a good education in school, living a moral life, being a good citizen, etc). All this through a process of learning at the level of the organizations I'm working with.
The other thing that motivates me is financial freedom. It doesn't necessarily mean making tons of money but making enough to cover expenses and not have to worry about a budget. I'm currently working on a side project/business that I hope will at least cover my mortgage and student loans each month. I have low expectations but that is what I hope and if I get more than that it would be great.
Chattel property? Loved ones? Lovers? Spouses?
(But thanks! I never am sure how to hit the right conversational note on hn.)
1. I want to explore the world: hear people's stories, learn new ideas, experience all the diversity and craziness there is in the world, have moments of childlike wonder.
2. I want to help people: victims of war, families in poverty, people who did not get a childhood or a fulfilling education, people who are not able to achieve their full potential.
3. I want to see myself grow. I'm curious as to how my abilities, my personality, and my outlook on life will change in the next decades.
4. I look forward to meeting the love of my life, raising a family, and participating in a close-knit, medium-sized community.
I may not achieve all of these things, and I will likely be have regrets and dissatisfactions, but on the whole, life has been a worthwhile journey, and I expect the future will be worthwhile as well.
In the context of life: it does derive itself from work i.e. I need work - other than that I don't believe in perfect balance, there's no such thing in life.
I'm usually trying to be an active nihilist i.e. less a passive one as much as I can. So I guess something in the realm of a “quest” of knowledge - the known unknowns and the yummy unknown unknowns.
That said. I don't put too much pressure on myself. I have goals but I'm also human and don't want to take life too seriously. I don't think it necessarily matters if I reach all of them or just a few. I see them as simply markers of directions I could move in that might make for some sort of exciting experience that lets me experience the joys and sometimes struggles of being alive.
Lately I've been mixing relaxation music that's really just royalty free recordings of nature and royalty free piano music.
1. Changing the inside of myself to have more of what I value.
If you're looking for more motivation, start with self-examination of what it is you deeply value.
I make no claim to being a healthy or normal individual.