Monday Motivation on Health Volunteers Naija.
Motivation Requires Fire
When Bob Dylan wrote in his book Chronicles about how much he admired Joan Baez before he met her, he said, “I’d be scared to meet her. I didn’t want to meet her but I knew I would.
I was going in the same direction even though I was in back of her at the moment. She had the fire, and I felt I had the same kind of fire.”
We don’t question what he means by “the fire.”
We read on, knowing full well what he means. But sometimes I wonder, though.
Do we really? Do we know it from experience?
Do we feel the same fire?
Do you have to be a poet or a singer?
No. We all know what it is to have that same fire, no matter how briefly we have experienced it.
My own life’s turning point came when I discovered I could light that fire all by myself. It took me more than 50 years to discover this.
But I’m slow in these matters. You can get it today if you want. For the first 50 years of my life I thought the fire only happened when something inspired me.
It was something that had to happen to me. And the reason I believed that was because that was my experience. You have to go by what you know, don’t you?
The funniest thing about fire is that it takes fire to light it.
I go to the fireplace to start a fire. I put crumpled-up newspaper under the kindling.
Then I put the logs over the kindling wood. But how do I start this fire? I need a match. Or a lighter. You have to have fire to start a fire. Ironic? Paradoxical? Counter-intuitive? Cruel hoax?
A friend of mine once said, “You’re on fire!” He was referring to the fact that I’d just sent him a flurry of book ideas, written copy for things we were selling, recorded audio programs, and a number of other activities and actions.
How did I set myself on fire? With fire.
One action led to another and I wasn’t afraid to rise early ﾭstead of allowing distraction.Work (as it always does when you throw your entire self into it) soon became fun.
Playwright Noel Coward said,“Work is more fun than fun.”
It is when you do it. It is not fun when you think about it.Especially when you think about it ahead of time.
To light a fire you need a fire. Rubbing two sticks together creates enough friction and heat to produce a spark and then a flame that you can put into the bigger fire.
It is the same process for yourself.
Getting into action ﾭgether. Do you think the sticks felt like being rubbed together? Do you ever see them do it on their own?
One such reviewer of 100 Ways in its original edition was Bubba Spencer from Tennessee. He wrote:“Not a real in-depth book with many complicated theories about how to improve your life. Mostly, just good tips to increase your motivation.
A ‘should read’ if you want to improve any part of your life
.- Mingus, legendary jazz musician
Edited by Rotr. Akeem Gbadamosi