There is this mule, see. Stubborn, lazy, selfish. Totally
complacent and absorbed with comfort. Devoid of ambition.
One thing, though. When the muleskinner cracks the whip, the
mule hops to, gets moving, gets on the ball. It’s magical.
The muleskinner has never actually skinned the mule – or
even whacked it much – but you’d never know that. The mule can be the very
model of productive effort, but only when the muleskinner gets serious with
him/her. The muleskinner issues very clear and specific commands . . . and never, ever backs off or compromises.
Got that picture?
If so, you’re now in possession of one more way to motivate yourself. The trick
is to convince yourself that you’re that obedient mule. You’re also that stern
and unbending muleskinner.
This cartoonish device works. If the mule picture doesn’t
move you, pick your own critter. Maybe a monkey. Or a faithful dog (avoid
cats).
The idea is to short-circuit that waffling thing so it won’t
intervene after you’ve set a personal productivity goal. Say you decide to do a
brief fitness exercise every day, or finally get started on designing that
original project. Something no one has asked you to do, but something you want
for yourself.
Too often in the past, such good intentions have fallen
victim to the erosion of second thoughts, all those “reasons” and other excuses
that drain away firm purpose. You wind up back behind where you started,
because now you have a fresh wimp-out image to flagellate your self-respect
with.
The thing with the mule is that the mule can’t talk back,
can’t wander off, can’t procrastinate. The mule has nothing to say about it.
He/she is nothing but a mule – order given, case closed.
You set your
intention, time and place. You put a marker in your mind, you set the alarm
clock, or make a promise to someone, or whatever. Then you resolutely refuse to
allow it back into your mind, except to arrange for fulfillment. A one-way
process.
This requires practice. It takes a modest shot of
discipline. It demands suspension of common adult “realism.”
But it works.
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