“Play dead, Sparky!” I said, and he did.
“Roll over,” I said, and he didn’t.
“Speak!” I commanded.
We all waited.
And waited.
“Speak? I said.
Sparky looked at me. The only thing you could hear was the wind in the trees.
from Sparky!
written by Jenny Offill
illustrated by Chris Applehans
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2014
accessed on YouTube 3/11/24
We all have unique combinations of character traits. Some we are born with and some we can acquire along the way. The helpful ones are our strengths. They are the values our society holds in common: faithfulness, kindness, honesty, generosity, empathy, cheerfulness… Others are those we fight against: laziness, impatience, sloppiness, tardiness, fearfulness, arrogance…
Most people have a default. My best friend defaults to optimism.
My default is laziness. When I admit that to people I know, they disagree. But it’s true. I fight against it continuously.
I wondered, “What’s the difference between slothfulness and laziness?” and discovered that slothful comes from the Greek and Latin for acedia, a word that means spiritual apathy. First recorded in English between 1350-1400, it identified one of the Seven Deadly Sins (which are opposite to the Seven Capital Virtues) and came to mean indolent.
I’m still stuck with the difference between lazy (indolent) and slothful. Here’s one idea. Laziness is when we are unwilling to do a chore, fulfill a responsibility, or exercise 30 minutes a day. Slothfulness is doing nothing, staying on the couch without making a conscious decision to get up and do something, anything.
With that definition, I need to revise my own. I’m not lazy on purpose. Time just gets away from me, so I guess my default is slothfulness! That sounds worse, but the result is the same so I’ll lean in and own it. And still fight against it, continuously!
Here’s something interesting about sloths. When scientists studied them, they came to the conclusion that sloths are not really lazy. As they evolved they became more efficient. Their respiration is slow, their movement is slow, and it can take up to a month to digest a meal.
Roadrunners, on the other hand, are the opposite of lazy. They are fast, fast, fast. They move fast, up to 26 miles per hour. They catch fast-moving food like scorpions, bats, and even hummingbirds.
While seemingly opposite, sloths and roadrunners depend mostly on their instincts. While it is true that we humans are creatures of habit and we rely on subconscious instincts, we depend on motivation to live, not merely survive.
According to VeryWellMind, motivation is the driving force behind human actions. Motivation is what causes us to act in ways that move us closer to our goals, keep us happy, and involved in our lives.
Psychologists recognize two distinct types of motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is completing a chore, task, or activity for a reward such as a trophy, some money, verbal praise from friends or family members or our boss. To encourage us to reach our goals, my Weight Watcher teacher suggests we reward ourselves when we reach a small milestone. The reward needs to reinforce the goal. (It does not work to reward myself with chocolate after completing my 30 minute pre-planned walk.)
Intrinsic motivation springs from our inner selves. We do what we do for the sheer joy it brings us. Jogging, belting out karaoke, or reading an engrossing novel, are examples. While I think about my readers, I write this blog to satisfy my own curiosity. I hope you are also a little curious about my thoughts and “tune in,” but I’ll keep writing as long as I stay curious.
Motivation depends on three components: activation; persistence; and intensity. We need all three to not only get motivated, but to stay motivated.
Activation is the action we take to begin a behavior. My example
is joining Weight Watchers.
Persistence is staying with it even when the going gets tough. I
can say “no” to the bowl of M&Ms and reach for the
popcorn instead. Maybe not great, but not de-railing!
Intensity is the amount of concentration and focus we devote
to our goals. I can “watch what I eat” and “exercise” or I
can plan, keep track, and stay determined.
The degree of those three components impacts how quickly I can reach my goal.
It’s hard to stay motivated, especially externally, without crossing the bridge from mindfulness to obsession. Willpower depends especially on the last two components. Social psychologist Roy Baumeister gave a group of students dishes of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and crisp radishes. One group was asked to resist the cookies and go for the radishes. Then he gave all of them an impossible puzzle to solve. The cookie eaters spent twice as much time working on the puzzle as the cookie resisters, 18 minutes vs. 9 minutes.
Baumeister suggests that those who used willpower to resist temptation did not have enough mental energy to fully engage in another challenge of their willpower, solving a puzzle.
But scientists tell us there are ways to help ourselves revive motivation when it sags, droops, flags.
Figure out why we chose this course of behavior (our new
goal)
Break the goal into its smaller parts
Imagine ourselves as successful (“fake it till you make it” really
works)
Make a list (it can be a mental recounting) of our successes so
far
Reframe our goal. (Instead of counting up how many pounds I
have lost, I can count down the pounds I have left to reach
my goal.)
So motivation is not really the difference between a sloth and a roadrunner. It’s a positive step we can take to help us enjoy a life full of interesting challenges.
I just finished reading The Many Masks of Andy Zhou by Jack Cheng (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2023). It’s a coming-of-age story about 12-year-old Andy who learns to navigate friendships, bullies, and straddle two cultures. The characters are well-drawn and complicated. Andy never loses sight of his goal, once he figures out what it is. Recommended for all of you (like me) who enjoy Middle Grade stories.
-—stay curious (and stick with it, whatever IT is!)
“Roll over,” I said, and he didn’t.
“Speak!” I commanded.
We all waited.
And waited.
“Speak? I said.
Sparky looked at me. The only thing you could hear was the wind in the trees.
from Sparky!
written by Jenny Offill
illustrated by Chris Applehans
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2014
accessed on YouTube 3/11/24
We all have unique combinations of character traits. Some we are born with and some we can acquire along the way. The helpful ones are our strengths. They are the values our society holds in common: faithfulness, kindness, honesty, generosity, empathy, cheerfulness… Others are those we fight against: laziness, impatience, sloppiness, tardiness, fearfulness, arrogance…
Most people have a default. My best friend defaults to optimism.
My default is laziness. When I admit that to people I know, they disagree. But it’s true. I fight against it continuously.
I wondered, “What’s the difference between slothfulness and laziness?” and discovered that slothful comes from the Greek and Latin for acedia, a word that means spiritual apathy. First recorded in English between 1350-1400, it identified one of the Seven Deadly Sins (which are opposite to the Seven Capital Virtues) and came to mean indolent.
I’m still stuck with the difference between lazy (indolent) and slothful. Here’s one idea. Laziness is when we are unwilling to do a chore, fulfill a responsibility, or exercise 30 minutes a day. Slothfulness is doing nothing, staying on the couch without making a conscious decision to get up and do something, anything.
With that definition, I need to revise my own. I’m not lazy on purpose. Time just gets away from me, so I guess my default is slothfulness! That sounds worse, but the result is the same so I’ll lean in and own it. And still fight against it, continuously!
Here’s something interesting about sloths. When scientists studied them, they came to the conclusion that sloths are not really lazy. As they evolved they became more efficient. Their respiration is slow, their movement is slow, and it can take up to a month to digest a meal.
Roadrunners, on the other hand, are the opposite of lazy. They are fast, fast, fast. They move fast, up to 26 miles per hour. They catch fast-moving food like scorpions, bats, and even hummingbirds.
While seemingly opposite, sloths and roadrunners depend mostly on their instincts. While it is true that we humans are creatures of habit and we rely on subconscious instincts, we depend on motivation to live, not merely survive.
According to VeryWellMind, motivation is the driving force behind human actions. Motivation is what causes us to act in ways that move us closer to our goals, keep us happy, and involved in our lives.
Psychologists recognize two distinct types of motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is completing a chore, task, or activity for a reward such as a trophy, some money, verbal praise from friends or family members or our boss. To encourage us to reach our goals, my Weight Watcher teacher suggests we reward ourselves when we reach a small milestone. The reward needs to reinforce the goal. (It does not work to reward myself with chocolate after completing my 30 minute pre-planned walk.)
Intrinsic motivation springs from our inner selves. We do what we do for the sheer joy it brings us. Jogging, belting out karaoke, or reading an engrossing novel, are examples. While I think about my readers, I write this blog to satisfy my own curiosity. I hope you are also a little curious about my thoughts and “tune in,” but I’ll keep writing as long as I stay curious.
Motivation depends on three components: activation; persistence; and intensity. We need all three to not only get motivated, but to stay motivated.
Activation is the action we take to begin a behavior. My example
is joining Weight Watchers.
Persistence is staying with it even when the going gets tough. I
can say “no” to the bowl of M&Ms and reach for the
popcorn instead. Maybe not great, but not de-railing!
Intensity is the amount of concentration and focus we devote
to our goals. I can “watch what I eat” and “exercise” or I
can plan, keep track, and stay determined.
The degree of those three components impacts how quickly I can reach my goal.
It’s hard to stay motivated, especially externally, without crossing the bridge from mindfulness to obsession. Willpower depends especially on the last two components. Social psychologist Roy Baumeister gave a group of students dishes of fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies and crisp radishes. One group was asked to resist the cookies and go for the radishes. Then he gave all of them an impossible puzzle to solve. The cookie eaters spent twice as much time working on the puzzle as the cookie resisters, 18 minutes vs. 9 minutes.
Baumeister suggests that those who used willpower to resist temptation did not have enough mental energy to fully engage in another challenge of their willpower, solving a puzzle.
But scientists tell us there are ways to help ourselves revive motivation when it sags, droops, flags.
Figure out why we chose this course of behavior (our new
goal)
Break the goal into its smaller parts
Imagine ourselves as successful (“fake it till you make it” really
works)
Make a list (it can be a mental recounting) of our successes so
far
Reframe our goal. (Instead of counting up how many pounds I
have lost, I can count down the pounds I have left to reach
my goal.)
So motivation is not really the difference between a sloth and a roadrunner. It’s a positive step we can take to help us enjoy a life full of interesting challenges.
I just finished reading The Many Masks of Andy Zhou by Jack Cheng (Dial Books for Young Readers, 2023). It’s a coming-of-age story about 12-year-old Andy who learns to navigate friendships, bullies, and straddle two cultures. The characters are well-drawn and complicated. Andy never loses sight of his goal, once he figures out what it is. Recommended for all of you (like me) who enjoy Middle Grade stories.
-—stay curious (and stick with it, whatever IT is!)
RSS Feed