Fallton Havenstonne

Right when we hear the alarm go off in the morning, we want to hit the snooze button and get more sleep. But we know we shouldn’t. We know we should wake up and hit the off button instead.

If we hit the snooze button, the alarm will go off again anyway. That few minutes of extra sleep is never enough. An hour or two more would be sufficient.

One way to wake up early–even before the alarm goes off–is to sleep early the night before and get plenty of sleep. If we feel like we need more sleep, it’s an uphill battle to wake up in the morning.

We’ll hit that snooze button until we’ve got barely enough time to get ready and go to work. And in that moment of panic, do we jump out of bed like we’re fully awake.

At the end of an arduous journey or project, we look forward to a reward. Something that acknowledges the effort and challenges we overcame to reach the end of the road.

But often times, the reward is short lived. Whether it’s a prize, or the satisfaction of seeing a finished work, the feeling of gratification and of a job-well-done will soon fade. Sooner or later, we want to start something new, and face new challenges that will push us to our limits. We need it despite the difficulties we went through–even when we said we wouldn’t do it again.

A reward will feel great in the moment, but one reward is hardly ever enough. Even after a break, we feel compelled to start something new, try something different. And in the end, it’s not really about the reward, but about the process of ever-changing growth and discovery that we take on new goals.

Time is something that our life revolves around. The clocks that we used to glance at on our wristwatch have been replaced by the clocks on our cellphones and computers. And those will be replaced by something else in the future–perhaps a ring, or something smaller, sleeker.

But no matter what form it comes in, a clock is essentially the same. It’s a device that tells time, that gives us information about when the future will happen, how much time we have until it comes. The only difference is that instead of checking the time, our devices have a way of keeping us occupied with it: apps, websites, games, messages, etc.

There’s always room for growth, the saying goes. Potential is something we can imagine. It’s not something we actually see. To have potential is similar to saying that we can do whatever we set our mind to. But will we set our mind on doing something, or will we just say we will?

When we are young, our potential seems limitless. We have an abundant amount of time, an abundant amount of options. But as we age, our time and options begin to dwindle. At some point, we must decide what to invest our time and energy into. We cannot spread ourselves thin, try to be the best at everything. We can only choose so many things, narrow it down to just a handful. For example, we choose hobbies and interests that matter to us, pursue jobs and fields that we can be successful in. For to be skillful and experienced in any field, it requires dedication, and years of practice.

Thus, we focus our talents and abilities on a handful of things out of a plethora. We become experts in them. We actualize our potential, bring what was once imagined into reality. But there is always room for growth–as the saying goes. We can always see a brighter future, a new ability to learn, and pursue new prospects and opportunities. Our potential is a limitless well of possibility. No matter how far we reach down and bring out the potential from within us, there always seems to be more.

When you work to survive, it’s easy to be motivated by that. If you stop working, then you won’t have income, and therefore, you won’t have the means to live comfortably. But when you’re working toward something that isn’t driven by income, but for creative or intellectual reasons, it’s a lot harder to stay motivated by it.

At first, the creative/intellectual energy will be intense when you start a project. You’ll work day and night on it, putting everything else aside. It’s as if that’s all you can think about, and nothing else matters except to finish the work–to see it through to the end.

But eventually, that tunnel vision focus, and that zestful energy you had, will begin to fade. The novelty of the project–the enthusiasm it inspired–will wear itself out. And then you will return back to where you began: back to normal. Back to the grind of surviving–making it through each day.

And with each day that passes, it becomes increasingly more difficult to reinvest yourself back into that project–which feels like lightyears away. Without a practical reason to pursue it, there seems to be no reason to continue working on it. It was just out of interest anyway.

Besides, no one was telling you to work on it. No one was encouraging you to finish it–to bring it to fruition. Even if someone did encourage you, they didn’t work on it like you did. You were there from the start. You were involved in each step. You know all the ins and outs like no one else. To work on it again, you have to tell yourself to keep working on it. You have to find a way to spark that interest again, to start up the engine of your inner spirit.

For being self-motivated, it can be a lonely place. Like you’re deep in the woods, and no one is interested in going with you on the unmarked, treacherous path that you’re on. It’s easy to turn around and head back home, to call it day and return back to normalcy. But you have to stay motivated. You have to keep telling yourself to not give up, to keep going, to believe that something great awaits you at the end.

Going out for a walk can be exactly what we need when we can’t make headway on a project or if we’re feeling like we’re in a rut. When we’re sitting in an office or at a desk for hours, it can be hard to think outside the box, to see things from a different angle or in a new way. It’s as if the monotony of sitting still in the same room can stifle creativity, keep us from thinking of new solutions.

Going out for a walk, we welcome the new stimuli that nature provides. The sky, the animals, the vegetation, etc. If we’re in the city, seeing the road, the architecture, and the people around us can inspire new ideas. It’s as if our mind was stuck in first or second gear while we were indoors, but outside, we were able to shift it to third and fourth and fifth gear–venturing our imagination to new frontiers.

The dichotomy between needs and wants is one that causes a lot of internal struggle within us. What we need isn’t necessarily what we want, and vice versa. We need food, drink, shelter, and to access those things, we need a job, a vehicle (or public transportation), and an annual income.

But what we want might have nothing to do with survival, as with the things aforementioned. Wants have more to do with the things that make us happy, such as hobbies, or owning things that are expensive, like luxury watches. Even though these things don’t provide for our needs, we’re willing to put a lot of time and money into them in order to obtain them.

Why is that though? Is it because our wants outweigh our needs, or is it because once we have our needs met, we can then focus on our wants?

The second seems like the most obvious answer. Once we have food, drink, shelter, etc., we can focus on the things we don’t have–the things that bring a sense of quality and enrichment to our life.

But even if we have all of our wants met, that wouldn’t be enough. For we cannot stand idly and let time pass until a need or want comes up. We are goal oriented. We need to have goals, and we need to have that feeling of accomplishment once we’ve completed them. It’s as if we’re in a continuous cycle to seek out goals–an endless pursuit of needs and wants.