Mr Motivator!

So I’ve been doing pretty well with my New Years Resolution so far. Could this be the first time I stick with a resolution all the way through January? Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we?

Today I’ve been thinking about motivation. What motivates you to get on with things? Are you a carrot or a stick sort of person? When I turn up to my day job, my motivation is pretty clear. It’s my job and I want to earn some money! But also, I’ve made a commitment to my place of work that I’ll turn up and do my job every day. I work in a care home, so I’d be letting quite a lot of people down if I didn’t show, including some people that are really vulnerable.

But what’s my motivation for doing other stuff? How do I keep myself motivated to write? Or to keep posting on this blog, even when I don’t really know if anyone’s ever going to read it? How do I motivate myself to send my finished stories (not that there’s a lot of them) to publishers? The only person I’ll be letting down if I don’t do that is myself, and I’m definitely not earning any money from this.

I think I’m definitely a ‘carrot’ rather than a ‘stick’ person. I know some people like to set themselves a target and tell themselves off if they don’t stick to it. I’m not very good with that approach. Instead, I have to promise myself a bit of a treat. Write 1000 words and then you can read a chapter of that book you’ve been enjoying – that sort of thing. I find that helps me to focus on things a bit better. Of course, I do this mostly with housework and chores, rather than writing… they’re the things I really need to push myself to do!

On that note, I’ve written a blog post for this week and I’ve stuck to my New Years resolution for 4 whole weeks… so I think I deserve some chocolate now!