Despite it being an unreliable source of lasting change, motivations that come to us from outside ourselves, e.g praise, rewards, deadlines, or other people's expectations can still get us moving in the short term.
There is also something to be said about internal motivations, which can be termed here as the quiet pull or natural drive to take massive action towards a particular direction arising from deeper inside us beyond the mind/emotion layer.
Of course, a thin line does exist between motivation and inspiration here, the latter is not forceful compared to the former as per my experience. Usually, motivation grips us with urgency. I must do this versus I want to explore this. Push versus pull.
Sometimes, people change emotionally out of the blue, not unlike the weather changing from sunny to rainy as is the case during spring.
I'm getting more familiar with this concept of one's inner world having its own climate which shifts without a clear reason from moment to moment.
Can't we wake up heavy or light, regardless of our circumstances?
I think this emotional weather runs deeper than anything external motivation can reach.
I went happily to watch the sunset a few days ago but when going back home sadly contemplating the state of the modern world without having any direct or indirect exposure whatsoever to news or social media.
Something shifted during that walk back.
One moment I was absorbed in the colors bleeding across the sky, feeling peaceful, maybe even grateful.
The next, walking the same path in reverse, a heaviness settled over me and thoughts about everything wrong with the world, feelings I hadn't invited or chosen.
Also, there was no trigger I could point to, no bad conversation or disturbing image. Just this wave that rose up from somewhere inside and changed everything.
It's a bit strange how we can be ambushed by emotions that seem to come from nowhere and carrying their own weather system completely separate from what's actually happening around us.
Beauty does that sometimes, it cracks us open, and what floods in isn't always more beauty, but awareness of its opposite. I'm not sure how this process really works though.
This sudden unpredictability of our inner landscape is also one of the reasons why external motivation eventually runs dry for most of us. It's borrowed energy that needs constant refueling from outside and can't account for these inner shifts/sudden changes in our emotional/mental weather.
A tip is to allow the internal weather changes to pass without resistance or judgment, since it operates on the surface while the real currents steering our lives flow much deeper.
The former is bound to keep coming and going, in different flavours much like the clouds in the sky.
I've read, internal motivation, by contrast, is like a wellspring that's quieter, but always there, bubbling up from somewhere we can't quite name but can definitely feel.
Hmm, not entirely sure I've fully tapped into that one yet.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.
