Brilliant Corners

I can't tell you how many weblog posts on motivation that I've read, filed away, and then completely ignored any advice they may have had. Just today I came across "Overcoming a Loss of Motivation" at Pick the Brain:

How many times have you started a new activity (such as a personal project or exercise routine) with a burst of enthusiasm, only to see that initial momentum evaporate? This often leads to depression and causes us to give up prematurely.

Well, how about this: how many times have I been lazy and never even reached the point of starting something new? Too many times, believe me. There is some decent advice at that site, but I often think that there's no hope for me. Well, maybe that's being a little over-dramatic. Perhaps it's just that there isn't any advice out there that truly applies to me, and my quirks.

I think that part of my problem is that I too often get tied up in the implementation of what I'm supposed to do. For one example, while I was reading Getting Things Done I spent more time thinking about how I would approach its organization principles instead of actually Getting Things Done. I eventually just gave up on that process, and I'm still without any decent organization on my tasks. It seems I'd rather waste time surfing about the net than actually hunker down and start--much less finish--some new project.

One of the best motivational quotes I've come across in all the books and articles and weblog posts I've read on the subject, is this one from William Zinsser in his book On Writing Well:

Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.

It doesn't get any more direct than that. And to start things off, I just now bought the domain name for the "Web 2.0" application to beat them all. Well, probably not. But I think it'll rock.