You Know What Matters

My friend Steve Gibson over at Truth Driven Thinking posted a wonderful article today On Becoming a De-Motivational Speaker.  It's a great essay and I encourage everyone to read it. The point is that while we are all so busy motivating ourselves to do more, we are often forgetting that what makes life worth living is our relationships that matter.

As he says so eloquently, you already know what matters.To quote Steve:
"I am convinced that the greatest meaning we can derive from life would not exist but for our relationships with each other. And for that we don’t need more things, motivation, achievements, or distractions from life; we need fewer! We need to experience life. Honestly, is our behavior and “motivational” mindset teaching and affirming what we value most? Our connectedness? Our social time in the village? Or do we favor emails, toys we don’t have time to use, cottages that sit empty, and more keys and responsibility to more locks and obligations than we could ever possibly use?"
This isnt' to say he is anti-motivation. He's simply advocating that we treat ambition for what it is.
"Perhaps like many sides of our human nature, ambition is an evolved trait—like egoism; self-centeredness; self-confidence; in-group, tribal bias; or being horny—which can present both a beneficial side, and a darker one. Maybe it is a trait that must be tamed and transcended in order for us to truly be all that we can be as people who are complete, whole, rounded, centered, loving, feeling, compassionate, alive, and fulfilled in our potential in the truest sense—not just the conventional and social sense."
Again, it's a great essay and I highly recommend that you read it.  If the above link for some reason didn't work, you can also view it at his old blog:  http://wp.me/puZtC-bW  Also, Steve has a book out - A Secret of the Universe: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Discovery of an Eternal Truth. I recommend you check that out as well.

1 comment:

  1. I read the first page and I didn't have to read anymore as I agree with it. I think it's basically a sham to offer the idea that external motivators can transform in internal ones. My gosh. I think that's about as effective as folks who incessantly buy self-help books and barely read any of them (and when they do it's really read like a novel, not a physics book... doing the latter can work well! Study it!)

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