Just Hangin' Out

I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation lately. Simply, what makes us want to do, and then keep on doing things to the point of developing into hobbies and even “passions”? Inspired by my attempt to revive a career in teaching, where we endlessly talk about “motivating” and “engaging” students in a “meaningful” way, I’ve been observing myself work through this list and question: what motivates me and what do I REALLY like to do (and why). Young learners are most often motivated by a reward (tangible or abstract). Is that it then? Do we only do things contingent on feeling awesome in some way?

To gain a little perspective, I did me some reading about “moral motivation” which simply says that people are moved to “do” through their beliefs and desires and act/respond based on judging something to be good or to have rational reason (reward) to act in a particular way. Pretty basic and boring, but what I liked was the statement that “morality is widely believed to conflict, frequently and sometimes severely, with what an agent most values or prefers to do…that there is often an opposition between self-interest and morality.” So deviant! I’ll come back to that in a later entry….

So, I resign to understanding motivation as a very intricate place being that beliefs and desires are accumulated from every miniscule moment, interaction, experience, encounter, learning etc etc that we each, individually happen to stumble upon or seek out in our short or long lives. That said, no blanket discovery here today folks. I do know though, that while I’m not “into” anything in particular (certainly not passionate about anything) I do enjoy being surrounded by pretty things, brunching on Sunday, revving up the ol’ adrenalin (in various ways; usually with others) and laughing till I cry. I’ve decided that my greatest motivation is to share time with the people I like & love and that this means my most desired, overall interest is to - just hang out.

A few weekends ago, for the first time, I hung out in a new way. Literally. With straps and rope and fancy buckles, I climbed a man-made, indoor wall and hung there, at the mercy of my dear climbing partner, who faithfully lowered me to safety each time. You really gotta like and trust a guy who can do that.


P.S - that little girl is obviously more "passionate" about climbing than me. Nothing to do with skill at all.....