Donkeys are interesting creatures.

Throughout history, they’ve served in a partnership with humans. They appear in folk and religious stories, they serve as pack, riding, cart, gaurd and companionship animals, and have a reputation for being intelligent, strong, protective, and…. stubborn. Nicer terms would be “single-minded” or “committed”, but it boils down to “stubborn”.

Somewhere inside of you, you have a donkey-brain, that part of your mind which seems to have a will of its own. Often it serves you well, doing the heavy lifting so that your conscious ego doesn’t need to strain itself, but other times, that stubbornness comes into play.

Remember all of those times you resolved to start a new exercise program, but didn’t? That was your inner donkey, refusing to budge. Those days you hit the snooze button a few too many times, and wound up 2 hours late for work? Donkey strikes again. Those times you’ve wasted the entire weekend plonked down on the sofa, remote in hand? Inner donkeys, it turns out, love watching golf, black and white movies in spanish, and reruns of Mr. Ed and Green Acres. Read the rest of this entry »

Before you read this post, you might want to take a deep breath. This is one of those turning-an-idea-upside-down posts, and it’s entirely counter intuitive. So consider yourselves warned! 

 Background________

 Two of my long-term goals are to pull both my weight and my finances under control.  I like it being pretty, being thin, being healthy.  I like feeling financially secure, having enough money to  be generous to others at a whim, and to spend in ways that make me happy. 

Right now I am none of these things.

I like these things, I value them, but somehow, they don’t seem to *motivate* me. Not when it comes to making and maintaining changes in my lifestyle. 

So instead of pushing and should-ing myself to force motivation that will eventually fail, I’ve decided to strap the goals of health, exercise and finances to something that *does* motivate me…. the intellectual vanity I discovered a week or so ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Money, success, fame, attention from the opposite sex… are these the carrots that drive your inner donkey into action?

Are you encouraged or discouraged by increases in responsibility, recognition, tokens of achievement? Does the promise of change push you into motion, or is it a drive to maintain balance and stability that breaks your inertia?

Most of us (even the more self aware among us) seem to stumble along in our worlds unaware of what actually motivates us. We know what we want, maybe even what we need in our lives — but for the most part, we’re unaware of our deeper primal motivations, the things which move that stubborn subconscious donkey.

(You have introduced yourself to your inner donkey, haven’t you? No? Maybe I’ll write a How-To on the topic this week, then. Can’t have you introducing yourself to Equus Asinus Internus improperly!)

I’m sure there are any number of personality tests out there to help you along the path, but I can’t be bothered to look them up right now.

You see, I’ve just had a motivational epiphany. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve likely never read the tagline for this blog - it’s in fine print all the way up in the top right oops.. left… corner, and part of it is in ghostly gray and hard to read on some monitors.

Here, I’ll use my finely tuned copy and paste skills, for your convenience.

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Fixing the world, one mind at a time
(starting with mine).

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It’s that bit at the end that we’re concerned with today. You see… my own mind definitely needs tweaking, and the brain that supports it hasn’t been working quite right lately, either.

Read the rest of this entry »