Nox Amicus

Shortly after midnight Sunday morning the moon was New again – so it became time to review the last cycle and prepare for this one.

Last month I spoke about Intention, and as I did, I said “It’s not enough to know what we do and why we do it – but it’s important, especially right now, to understand all the nuance around us.”

There is a German proverb that says “Der liebe Gott steckt im detail”, which translates to ‘God is in the detail’. There are other variants that say that the devil is in the detail – but the end result is that whatever will save or ruin you is not always what is obvious to you, but breathes in whatever is under the surface.

That nuance bit me this month. I had been so focused on Intention that I had lost track of Motivation. To me, Intention describes what our thought process is AS we are doing a thing – while Motivation occurs before the fact, and provides the answer to WHY we are doing the thing. How did we get to be at Choice? What drives us to move in a particular direction? Who has the influence to Motivate us? It is interesting to me that Motivation is wrapped up in four of the six journalistic questions.

I have been feeling mired in doldrums for quite a while lately. I’m sure this isn’t unique to me, as I suspect much of it is pandemic related. I can usually self-motivate pretty well – but when there is a lack of positive feedback it takes a toll. Not being able to play music with the band has been tough. Also, over the last few months, there has also been a near absence of professional feedback.

This week saw a change though and opened my eyes to this lack of Motivation. I took a “tech support” question from a friend and spent about half an hour troubleshooting over the phone until we cleared the issue. The accomplishment felt great, but even better was a few hours later when I got a beautiful ‘thank you’ email. It was then that the prior lack of personal or professional feedback came into focus.

So this month I’ll look at Motivation. Just as there are ‘love languages’, I imagine there are Motivation-languages too – so what are mine? Words of Affirmation, certainly – but anything else? Also, I have always recognized that my needs are not as dire in these times as those of many that I’m close to – so how can I be more self-sufficient in my Motivation? How can I make the most of the gift of time?