Friday, I went out with some friends.  We stayed out pretty late, 1:30 to be exact, but we had a great time because I hadn’t gotten to see one of them in quite a while.  Plus, we were at a lounge that was playing some chill music I like.  I didn’t drink more than 2 drinks on Friday night and I drank plenty of water but I woke up at 9:30 Saturday feeling sluggish, because I’m normally in bed by 10 and up at 5am.  My rhythms were off, way off, from staying up so late. 

It was difficult to get out of bed, but I did because there were quite a few things I wanted to do on my Saturday.  I went to a nice cafe near my house, that’s as close to a European café we have here in Atlanta and had some of their delicious coffee and worked on reading some books I’m finishing up, A New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derick Sivers and How to Win an Argument Every Time by Gerry Spence.  Then I drove to Jones Bridge by the Chattahoochee National Park in Johns Creek and did a 6 mile walk / jog with some meditative thinking and sprints too.  I got a runners high. 

After that was over, I went home and cooked some Baked Chicken, Steamed Spinach, Sautéed Mushrooms, a Baked Potato, and had some fruit for a desert.  I took a 20 minute nap in my newly remodeled guest room after, to try out the bed.  Comfortable!

My feeling of sluggishness was long gone by now.  I made some phone calls, loaded up my shotgun and shooting equipment and went out to the Tom Lowe Olympic Shooting Center to shoot sporting clays.  I shot horrible, but I wrote what I was doing wrong in my sporting journal.  Hopefully, I will improve next time.  I listened to an audiobook out there and back, about writing and business.

When I got back, I cooked another meal, an omelet with tomatoes and mushrooms.  Then I had some Ginger Honey Green Tea.  Afterwards, I went out and met another friend I hadn’t seen in a while.  We went out and listened to a country band at Fado Irish pub.  I danced with several people, and taught them how to two-step.  Today, I got up and went to church.  Now I’m going to write this blog post and get some rest afterwards.

I could have sat on my butt and watched someone else do things on a big screen. But I didn’t.
​
What is motivation?  Motivation is movement, plain and simple. 

The Latin root word for motivation is movement.   The two words movement and motivation could be looked at as the same word. 

For a classic INTJ (Architect) personality like me, who gets energy and rest from quite time, reading, thinking, alone time, and from analyzing things this concept of motivation as movement is VERY IMPORTANT.  Bottom line: It’s good that we have a brain, and we can be logical, and reason, and think.  But when it comes to motivation, we can think too much and stall out, or come up with excuses, or rationalize.

Yes, I’m an introvert.  I LOVE people, and empathy comes natural to me, but I am an introvert who enjoys DEEP conversations with people, instead of shallow chatter.  Banal group chitchat wears me out.  I don’t care about degenerate American culture.  But I can go the opposite direction to much.  I can at times go too deep for too long and wear myself out and lose motivation. 

So it’s important to remember:

We don’t need to think too much to be motivated.  We need to move to be motivated!

Actually it’s important for anyone, introvert like me or not, to remember this. 

When I first started my training business, I analyzed way too much.  I wrote a long manual, roughly 150 pages, on Personal Training.  I probably should have tried to sell it or publish it because to this day, it’s the best one I’ve seen.  I did this all for my personal use.  It was good, but it took me so long, that it was in some ways a waste of time. 

Don’t think about motivation.  Do motivation. 
Don’t wait for the right time.  It will never come. 

If you’re not motivated, it’s because you’re thinking too much.  Why are we thinking so much? We know what we need to do.  We know what needs to happen.  We know we need to get off our butts. 
We know we need to feel the fear and do it anyway.  We know we need to feel the fear and do it BECAUSE we feel the fear.

People play games.  Games are easy and fun.  We all do.  Let’s argue about dumb stuff. Let’s fight.  Let’s shame and berate.  Let’s pontificate.  Let’s shuffle around from one time waster to another.  Let’s put off calling an old friend.  Let’s not pick up the phone and make an effort.  Let’s come up with another meaningless game, another meaningless shopping trip, let’s create some mindless work, or schedule another meaningless meeting.

Let’s take on a meaningless cause, or obsess over labels, or microbrews.  Let’s stare at our phones. 

Let’s figure out everything we can do, anything at all, to keep from doing something that matters. 

Let’s do anything that’s not hard.  As long as it’s not hard we might do it. 

Let’s buy some more junk, stuff our face, or get wasted.  After all, we’re not motivated to do anything better.  Why not? Because we’re cowards.  We’ve been beaten down and we don’t want to fight back.  It’s easier to think and talk than it is to do.  Isn’t it?  Yes, it is.

There is no “try” there is only do. Failure doesn’t exist, because failure is cowardice.  Cowardice is failure. 

How about we criticize other people, or try to shame them, when they do something new.  Why don’t we do that?  That’s easy and everyone’s doing it. So let’s do it too.  Let’s play that game.  It’s a fun game and we don’t have to deal with our own shame.  We can all join in and make ourselves feel so much better- we’re richer, we’re better looking, or we’re so much smarter.  Ha ha look at them.  So yeah, we’re all about that.  Let’s make fun of other people, so we can feel better.  But really we do that because we feel lousy on the inside.  

That doesn’t take any movement.  That doesn’t take any motivation.  Being petty is an easy cheap thrill. 
From what I’ve found, when I’m spending time criticizing other people, I’m not doing crap.  I’m wasting my breath.  As they say in the ARMY, I need to shut my cakehole.  Criticizing is for losers.  It’s easy and takes absolutely no motivation.   Leading is hard, including leading yourself, so we don’t want to do it. 

We’d rather not, not make the connection, speak up, attend the funeral, or compliment someone.  That’s too vulnerable, takes too much swallowing of the ego.  It’s hard.  So let’s play games instead.   

So what is motivation?  Motivation isn’t playing games, or analyzing, or thinking.  It’s getting out there and storming the field, writing the book, loving people and encouraging them, or having a long conversation with someone you love.  Motivation is doing.  If you aren't motivated, it's because you aren't moving. 

Motivation is moving.  So let’s move.

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In one of my favorite books, “Fight Club”, which was later made into a movie with Brad Pitt and Ed Norton which became a cult classic, the protagonist utters many famous lines.  These are some of the best ones:

“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything”

“We buy stuff we don’t need to impress people we don’t like.”

“You are not your khakis!”

“We’re the middle children of history man.  No purpose or place.  We have no great war.  No great depression.  Our great war is a spiritual war.  Our great depression is our lives.”

Fight Club and other movies like Office Space, The Burbs, American Beauty, and many more explore the depth of the spiritual void often encountered in American Life.  I oscillate between valuing and resenting the trappings and pleasures of modernity personally.  There are many to deal with for the lucky among us- a nice place to live, a thriving business, cars to drive, too much to eat, endless trivial entertainments, political dramas, futile status striving, worthy causes of all sorts, and so on, good and bad.  But as I wrote about in Movement & Meaning, the depression and mental illness epidemic we face as a country is as much a subconscious reaction to reality as anything else.  
 
We are faced with a problem.  We are facing directly into a spiritual void and we need to turn around and go the other direction towards something more meaningful.  Instead of viewing depression as solely an individual psychological ailment it could be viewed as a cultural failure as well.   Depression and anxiety are perfectly logical reactions to a spiritually bankrupt culture.  If you think about it, in some ways medicating for depression or anxiety is a way for the “narrative”, “matrix”, “system” or whatever you want to call the culture we live in to beat us back into submission so that we don’t really challenge what’s happening.  There is a lot of money to be made off of these "illnesses"!

Medicate and you will feel better (wink, wink).  Some people may really need to medicate, but not everyone does.  Medication does nothing about the original problems causing us stress, anxiety, or depression.  I believe looking at stress this way is helpful because it challenges us to make positive change.   At one point in my life, I was not sleeping enough, I had some bad habits, and I was stressed out.  I was offered antidepressants which I quickly turned down because I didn’t need to take them, I needed to change some things about the way I was living.  In the irony of all ironies, most of our problems are caused by our own successes.  We are victims of our own materialism, in that it controls everything else.

So let’s break it down:

Currently:  Materialism > Spirituality & Values

Wise & Healthy Living: Spirituality & Values > Materialism

Notice materialism is not bad per se, but it’s not as "good" as spirituality.  Our deepest sense of truth and justice and our values should drive our materialism, not the other way around.  Ideally our spirits determine the meaning of our material world instead of our material world determining our spirits.  So essentially we need to reorient ourselves towards valuing the right things.  But this is not what we do, is it? I know I don’t always.  It’s a constant battle to keep the priorities rightly aligned.  Too often we let the material world own us and destroy us. 

Also:

Currently: Stress > Self-Destruction (addiction, neuroticism, compulsion, narcissism)     
                          
Wise & Healthy Living: Stress > Change & Growth

It’s not all doom and gloom in America, though if you watched the new you would think so. There are inspiring things happening which reflect these two simple paradigm shifts.  America is a civic-minded nation, compared to most others.  Maybe not as much as we used to be, but we still are.  Americans are good people and we want to do the right thing.  People are stepping up to solve the problems we’ve caused ourselves.  One of the most exciting and positive developments in recent years is the emergence of a movement called New Urbanism.  I’m a recent adherent of the movement so I’m not an expert, but from what I see so far, it may be the key to saving American society. 

New Urbanism is one of the few solutions I’ve seen which addresses many of the key problems like Crime, Stress, & Obesity / Diabetes in one concept, by increasing safety and fostering community.  I believe in individual liberty but also communal responsibility.  I’m neither a complete individualist nor a complete conformist.  I think you need both aspects to live in a good world.   If we move away from a materialism-first culture towards one where we are focused on what is good, then we will change for the better when confronted with the stress associated with cars, traffic, ugly urban blight, and commuting.  New Urbanism addresses many of the issues we face in a uniquely balanced way and these are the main components:

• Walkability
• Connectivity
• Mixed-Use & Diversity
• Mixed Housing
• Traditional Neighborhood Structure
• Quality of Life
• Sustainability
• Green Transportation
• Increased Density
• Quality Architecture & Urban Design

One of the great tragedies of American life since the advent of the suburbs has been the sharp decline in community life, but we’re slowly starting to build it back.  It can be done within the limitations of commuting for now but it’s harder to pull off.  The trend away from the car is going to continue.   Once communities are built to reflect the values of New Urbanism more, it will be easier to build community because people will be able to use common spaces, get more exercise, and be in closer contact.  Don’t get me wrong, there will be growing pains and mistakes along the way.  Utopia is a place which will never exist but I believe we can go back to a more sensible way of life. 

Ironically, every year Americans spend millions of dollars to travel so they can then walk around theme parks, or popular walkable cities like NYC, New Orleans, Charleston, or San Francisco, or abroad in Europe in quaint villages or vibrant walkable cities like London, Paris, or Amsterdam.   Did it once ever occur to us we could design our own towns and cities to be like this instead?  We don’t have to go on vacation to go for a walk somewhere nice or charming.   There is absolutely no reason why we can’t retrofit all of our architectural ugliness and dysfunction into thriving and revitalized cities and towns all across this country, and spur a decline in crime, stress, and obesity and diabetes with it. 

The next time you drive up to a busy intersection, look at the 2 or 3 people, or the lone individual walking across or waiting at the light.  Watch how they have to practically run to get across the street because the boulevard is so huge and they may not make it in time.  Sometimes they are pushing a baby carriage, taking their life and their child’s life in their own hands.  Maybe they were one of the millions displaced by deindustrialization and they spend their time now just wandering around looking for a job.  Regardless, these walkers are our neighbors, and if we start to use some of the principles of New Urbanism, we might meet them sometime and find out that we’re not that different.

The Congress of New Urbanism, whose motto is “Building Better Places”, is not the end all and be all, but it’s a good start to a better tomorrow.  For more information check out:  www.cnu.org

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Friends, I've been asked over the years many times to do one-on-one coaching and I've done it informally through training and wellness counseling for years. For anyone who doesn't know, my graduate training is in Health Promotion and to all those who do know me, I have a passion for helping others. This post is to announce that I am formally offering very limited coaching and consulting services online and in-person. I will only accept those who are interested in making serious changes for the better.

I've been lucky to work with many mentors and coaches in my life, both formally and informally, and it is exciting to be able to offer this.

We will discuss rates in private, but I am open to creative trade and barter.
Expertise areas include:
- Fitness
- Healthy Eating
- Achieving Goals
- Lifestyle Change
- How to Become Self - Employed or Start a Business
- Building a Network
- Mentoring & Spiritual Guidance
- Building Muscle & Losing Fat
- Anxiety, Depression, & Other Stress- Related Issues
- Social Issues
- Finding Meaning in Life
- Healthy Work
- Healthy Work Environments

I am also doing more speaking, and have several business owners I am working with on corporate wellness program design, so stay tuned for more information about other consulting services. Thank you in advance for your support.
www.scottgodwin.net 

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” -Charlie Chaplin

The smallest and youngest of babies laugh, starting at 6 weeks.  Laughter is literally like getting high on a drug and it makes us feel good, releasing a cavalcade of hormones and chemicals in the brain which make us feel euphoric.  Laughter is joyful, free, and spontaneous.  It’s in the moment.  Sometimes it’s cruel but so is life.   I never got deep in to Shakespeare, but I know life is a tragedy, and a comedy, and a history like Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and All’s Well That Ends Well for example. 

Some things shouldn’t be laughed at, so in a sense laughter has a sacred quality.  There’s a time and a place for everything.  Sometimes it’s good to be serious, maybe most of the time, and then sometimes it’s good to laugh.  There is an undeniable joy in every single moment if we stay awake to it.  That’s because every moment really is a gift, as corny as it sounds.  This is the essence of the good life.  Laughter is a way of finding the joy in the moment.

Laughter can build camaraderie, trust, and can break down social barriers.  Most of the best things in life are free.  Think back on a time when you didn’t have much.  You were just about as happy, weren’t you?   Laughter is free.  If someone can’t laugh at themselves, they have serious problems in my book.  We all do things worth being laughed at and after all, even the essential plot of a classic Shakespearean comedy is the noble protagonist with a fatal flaw.  Who among us doesn’t have a flaw or two?

Laughter brings out our humanity and commonality.  We’re not that much different from each other.  Laughter breaks down the ego.  Think about this fact for a minute:  When you laugh hard, tears come down your face.  But when you cry, you get tears down your face as well.  Tragedy and comedy are two sides of the same coin- called life.   Why not enjoy it?

Perhaps the best description I’ve heard of laughter is this, by the late Comedian Milton Berle- “Laughter is an instant vacation.”  It takes us to a moment of high awareness, when we get outside of ourselves, our pettiness, our fears and anxieties, our differences, and the games we play with ourselves and others.  Laughter is serious business.  We know that most of the things we worry about don’t matter, but we pretend they do, and then laughter steps in. 

Some of the people I enjoy being with the most are the people I laugh the most with- the storytellers, the witty, the accents, the colloquialisms, the silliness, the childlike innocence, the impersonators, the ironic, the jokers, the exaggerators, and so on, and the general cast of characters I run in to on a weekly basis. Thank God for people like them.  If you look around you, laughter is everywhere, waiting to be found. 

It’s easy to laugh at other people’s expense, but even though I’ve done it, it doesn’t feel right does it?  Not if it’s cruel and hurts someone anyway.  There are plenty of other things to laugh at.  Plus, it feels better to build people up than to laugh at them and tear them down.  Once, when I was in high school playing football, I got caught impersonating one of my coaches, with all 50 or more players gathered around.  He was standing behind me!  This was funny, and guess what, he thought it was too.  Laughter is laughter because it’s funny, and it’s funny because it’s true. 

Like I said, life is a comedy and a tragedy.  Maybe that’s why so many comedians go mad, because there’s a fine line between the two.  God rest the soul of Chris Farley who made us all laugh.  We all know we can’t live forever, not in this world anyway, so why not find the joy of laughter whenever we can.   It’s serious business.
                                                                                    
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