Motivation

Motivation can be a slippery thing. You've got it one minute and it's gone the next. As of late, I've been thinking about two types of motivation. They are both outcome-related motivation. One is the "to-do" outcome and the other is the (as Mater from Cars would say) "tuh-not-to" outcome.

An example of "to-do" motivation: We view a person or an image that represents having great success getting fit and they become our "to-do" motivation. We think of them--their health, fitness, spiritual strength, etc to help us press on in accomplishing our personal goal of getting fit. 

In keeping with this same idea of trying to be motivated into getting fit, our "tuh-not-to" motivation would be a person or an image of something that represents to us bot being fit. We may picture a person--or ourselves--weighing 500 pounds, sitting on a couch eating potato chips and ice cream.

I recently had brought to my attention an example of "tuh-not-to" motivation in the realm of not viewing pornography. Remember the serial killer Ted Bundy? Well, he offered an interview shortly before his execution and in it he links his behavior as beginning with pornography. Great example of a "tuh-not-to" motivator in choosing NOT to view pornography and to get away quick when it finds you.  

Why "The 15 Minute Blog"?

"The 15 minute blog" came into being by accident. A few weeks ago, as I was finishing up my reading of a blog post, I was stunned by a challenge issued to each of the readers of that blog: To begin a blog of their own. I was surprised by the challenge and soon forgot about it. However, it kept creeping back into my thoughts so I decided I'd better decide to forget about it forever, do a blog, or something else. I decided to do a blog. Lest ye think that I am far removed from the blogging world, I have had a personal blog since 2008 (6+ years) and have 3 followers. Yes, THREE followers. I also have a family blog that has many more visitors, but even that blog hasn't been updated since 2012. For ease and convenience I have merged my previous blog (H-Opinions) with this blog (My 15 Minute Blog).

Why the title? Because I am somewhat anti-"spending my life online". There are so many other enjoyable pursuits that I don't want to miss out on by posting or reading a bazillion blogs each day. So I intend to do 15 minute blog posts: whatever I can write in 15 minutes on a topic of my choice is what will end up on the page. Beyond that, I do get "sucked in" to writing and reading and many other things so in limiting my time I hope to 1) stay motivated to continue the blog (it's only 15 minutes!) and 2) continue growing in other ways and not become obsessed with my blog. We'll see how I do.