# How Do You Self-Motivate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2023, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-self-motivate/978487 "2023-01-20T02:20:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-self-motivate/978487/41 "2023-01-23T20:25:38Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I agree reading the original source material is best. The reason I recommend _Meditations_ in particular is that Marcus Aurelius wrote all of that for no audience but himself. He wasn’t trying to convince anyone else of anything. The reader can view his carefully preserved personal thoughts many centuries later and discover for themselves how someone who subscribed to stoicism actually thought and the practical ways in which he implemented the philosophy into his daily life. He showed us the way (or at least _a way_). I started reading a book about Stoicism on Kindle Unlimited. It’s interesting stuff. Some things you’ve heard before (focus on what you can control) but I’m seeing that concept a bit differently this time around. The idea of being attentive and intentional about what you can control. I made a list of everything I can control right now. It was pretty long. I was also thinking about my favorite poem, Rudyard Kipling’s _If_. Is that not a Stoic manifesto? _If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating…_ > **[If— by Rudyard Kipling | Poetry Foundation](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if---)** > > If you can keep your head when all about you Also makes me think of a line from my favorite Buddhist poem which I have had sitting framed in my bedroom for years _Lift to the heights, or hurl me Sheer down the steep abyss I shall not laugh for that I shall not weep for this_ Sangharakshita ---
**Author:** ![LegendHasit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/legendhasit/32/8246_2.png) [@LegendHasit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegendHasit)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2023, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-self-motivate/978487/42 "2023-01-23T23:10:57Z")
1 min or 1-inch at a time. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2023, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-self-motivate/978487/43 "2023-01-24T11:40:51Z")
A few things that work for me; Manage energy not time. So alternate between tasks that feel fulfilling and those that feel draining. Keep reminding yourself that action, no matter how small, most often precedes motivation. Just start. Anywhere. With anything. No matter how small. My ‘to do’ list is in pencil, erasing items seems more rewarding to me that scratching them out. The motivation to get the last couple of items off that page, really helps me complete the list in it’s entirely. Something that’s always been a struggle for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-self-motivate/978487.md?page=2)