Dear LCP Family,
I’m having a bit of a creative crisis. I don’t want to blame this one on Joe Rogan, because, goodness, the man’s been through plenty, but this current crisis started with a recent listen to his podcast. The podcast topic is irrelevant, but the mention that caught my attention was “motivation porn.” That one key phrase struck an artistic nerve right in my productivity center. I haven’t recovered since.
I don’t want to get into a discussion on porn’s connotations, regardless of type, but let’s assume for the sake of argument that porn is something that stimulates a compulsive interest in its audience. Therefore, without Rogan and company further discussing motivation porn, I immediately took it to mean all the resilience, grit, perseverance, and “with hard work, we can achieve anything!” books, YouTube videos, TED talks, and the like.
I have no idea if this is what it actually means.
Like other types of porn, it's watching the thing, but not doing the thing. It’s getting excited about the thing, but not acting on the thing. It’s thinking about the thing, but not participating in the thing.
And then I had the real moment of panic… was I perpetuating motivation porn culture with this weekly blog?
HO-LY SH…. wait a minute.
I then had a coming to grace moment with myself.
We’re bombarded daily by information. Some of it is good, some bad, and some inspirational. Some of it will get you motivated. Some of it will get you really excited. But, if you don’t act on the information, you will never get anywhere. Truth bomb: you actually have to get off your butt and act. Or, you have to put your butt in the chair and work. It’s the common paradox known as the Motivational Butt Conundrum. Either way, if you do nothing, the excitement’s going to wear off, you can go back to the motivation porn for your next dopamine hit, and become trapped in an endless cycle of non-productivity.
It ultimately pleased me to know that I was wrong with this blog post’s title. In fact, please don’t stop reading this blog. Read this blog and also do your work. Done. Easy.
Fred summed it all up quite succinctly when he said, “I’ve read the War of Art ten times. If I’m not writing, is it the book’s fault? I’m gonna say no.”
Happy productivity, friends.
Annie
Are you trapped in an endless motivation porn cycle? You can live authentically here by hitting the heart button. Free yourself of your creative sins in the comments below. Just keep those confessions PG. There's only so much coffee...