Motivation

In the midst of the battle between inspiration and exhaustion, an insight:

 creative work = a challenge I set for myself

 creative satisfaction = meeting that challenge

 creative output = a by-product

First came the insight, and then recognition:  this is how I've always done my best work – back when my best work came effortlessly, and won success wherever I placed it.

The paradox is that the best work is never about ‘work’ at all. It’s about the mindset that fuels me – so that I'm simply unwinding a long spool of energy, charged by my own curiosity, inspiration, and authentic self-defined challenge.  

True of the creative process and its results, it applies equally to any endeavour, big or small: 

 work = a challenge I set for myself

satisfaction = meeting that challenge

output = a by-product

  

The output, the outcome that is usually thought of as the goal, is only ever an incidental by-product of the real task: the meaningful, energising challenge that I’ve given myself.

It’s been a long time since this has been my default approach.  The dislocation of illness and the disorientation of recovery stripped away so many things I had done and known, and it seems I must learn them again.

This (re-)discovery is, then, powerful and empowering.

I remember now. I will not forget this again.