In our last couple +1s, we chatted about the Dish Rag Theory of Motivation and connected that to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
Beyond helping you do what needs to get done whether you feel like it or not, the main point of those +1s was simple…
I wanted to share the fact that you are not alone when you feel unmotivated to do the things you KNOW you really want to do.
I know that the story I used to tell myself that something was wrong with ME because I felt fear and laziness and all the other things was one of the primary contributors to my suffering—which is why I try to come back to the fact that there ARE NO PERFECT HUMAN BEINGS as often as I do.
There’s something incredibly powerful about having the Self-Compassion to embrace what Kristin Neff calls “common humanity.”
With that in mind, I want to share some wisdom from Rainer Maria Rilke.
In her great memoir that we discussed not too long ago (check out our Notes on Building a Life Worth Living), Marsha Linehan shares an incredible gem from Rilke.
She and her colleagues gave a calligraphed version of this wisdom to one of their mentors.
She has a copy of it framed on the wall in her therapy office…
In his Letters to a Young Poet, Rilke once said…
“Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty and sadness. ... Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words.”
That’s Today’s +1.
I repeat…
“Do not believe that he who seeks to comfort you lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. His life has much difficulty and sadness. ... Were it otherwise he would never have been able to find those words.”
Amen to that.
There are no perfect humans. You and I won’t be the first.
It’s the challenges we have struggled with that give us the wisdom we are blessed to share.
Here’s to humbly yet Heroically doing our best as we strive to forge the strength for two and give the world all we’ve got.
TODAY.
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