There are aspects of my life about which I’m not all that happy. For example, I’d love to be in the shape I was twenty or even ten years ago. I’d love to be independently wealthy, traveling the world and taking amazing photographs. I’d love to feel comfortable talking with anyone regardless of how unfamiliar, successful, talented, beautiful, or influential they might be. I’d love…. well, the list could go on and on and if I spent a great deal of time dwelling on it, I’d probably be in need of daily therapy and a buffet of drugs.
In situations where one of these ‘insufficiencies’ rears its ugly head, my wife often clarifies for me that while things may not be ideal right now, they will improve. She’s pretty convincing, so in those moments I generally come around to believing that I can and will improve whatever is haunting me. In reality though, much of the time I don’t feel like I’m making progress. In fact, many times I find that I’m not really all that interested in making progress.
Don’t get me wrong, the desire to be as physically fit as I was ten years ago doesn’t go a way; it’s the desire to do something about it that goes away. And I don’t think I’m alone, I think there are many people who face the same tug of war between the desire to change something they’re not happy with and the lack of desire to do what it takes to change. How many times have we found the motivation to join a gym, fit a few workouts into our busy schedule, and then fall off the wagon, never to be seen at the gym again?
I learned from a friend not long ago that because everything in life is integrated, my lack of desire to go to the gym on any given day may not matter as much as I think it does. He was speaking from a holistic point of view. Holism can be described very neatly as the fact that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. An implication of this definition is that the whole cannot be described in terms of the parts alone, the interactions or interrelationships between them must also be taken into consideration. From my friend’s point of view, this means that improvement in one area of my life can and likely will lead to improvements in other areas of my life. From his point of view, my passion to learn to take better pictures can lead me to connect with other, better photographers or go on several mile hikes on a weekly or even daily basis. These things may not mean the realization of my goals of being more extroverted or physically fit, but they definitely are steps in the right direction.
We may find that the motivation to run or go to the gym comes and goes, but it is likely that there is something for which we have plenty of motivation that will last a very long time. If you have not already, take a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months to identify a passion. Find something that is capable of getting you out of bed very early on a very cold morning. Once you have nailed this passion down and begun to spend time on it, identify some ways it can help you meet those goals for which your motivation is lacking. As an added bonus, because everything is integrated, in the end you will probably find that the progress you make toward those other goals greatly enhances the progress you make toward the goal about which you have plenty of passion.
