This article written by Jenn Vespermann. Used with permission.
"This is a motivating story about a crippled man who climbed the north face of Kilimanjaro, wrote three symphonies and won a Nobel Prize for literature...."
... get it away from me.
I feel guilty enough just for being sick. I feel guilty enough when all I manage in a day is getting out of bed - or not even that. I feel guilty when all I manage in a day is doing the washing up, and the laundry, and going to see the naturopath, and getting the bills paid, and doing the worst of the weeding... oh. Um. Did I really do all that? I shouldn't feel sore, should I?
Those stories aren't motivational. I'm already motivated - I'm so motivated I drive myself into relapses, regularly. I'm motivated by guilt, by shame, by the desperate need to tick some box other than 'unemployed' or 'home duties' in all those many, many places where society seems to demand boxes get ticked.
Those stories just make me despair. I don't care how motivating they are, it's not a failure of *WILL* that has left me sick. It's a failure of body.
Our minds are trapped inside these bodies. The body is the only interface we have. Sending me stuff that messes with my mind isn't going to do a thing to improve my body. It might even make it worse.
Here's a motivational story for you:
There was once a young woman whose body got sick and let her down. While she was sick, her mind was free to think, though her body was sometimes too weak to even lift a pencil, or watch TV. During the years she was ill, she thought about herself, her responsibilities to herself and her friends and family and society in general, and who she really wanted to be. Eventually, her body started to get better, and she studied things that would help her become who she really wanted to be. Now, she's a lot happier, and a lot wiser, and knows she's strong enough to survive an illness. But she's never climbed the north face of Kilimanjaro. But she's a better, stronger and happier person for not having done it.
That's a realistic, and truly motivational story. Tell that one instead.
