To Do What You Wanna Do, Be Who You Wanna Be!

Picture by Sam Davis

Self-discipline and motivation has been a struggle for me since day one. I can remember my kindergarten teacher complaining about the fact that I couldn't finish tasks. In elementary school, I would finish 90% of a drawing in 20 minutes, and take forever over the last 10%.

And then my dad told us a story. I don't really remember much of it, but it was about this little guy, a toymaker, who could never finish all the toys he started making. His workshop was full of unfinished toys. This struck me, at the time and still now, as incredibly sad.
I realized that that was not the kind of person I wanted to be.

When you find it hard to do the kind of things you set out to do, or to follow the planning you have made for yourself, take a step back. Don't keep pushing yourself, because you risk starting to resent the task that you have set out to do, which brings you nowhere closer to finishing it.

Instead, take that step back and get some perspective. Imagine how the task fits in with the kind of person you want to be. 
Take 3 minutes to ask yourself the following questions:

1. What kind of person do I want to be?
2. How would that kind of person tackle this task?
3. How will finishing this task reflect on me as a person?

Realize that who you are is no more set in stone than the clouds in the sky. 'YOU' is a fluent concept. You are allowed to change and improve upon this concept, and more importantly, you can radically change it to become what you want it to be. 

True, some things we can't change, and some parts of our personality are less flexible than others, but I believe that who we really are as a person doesn't depend on those everlasting, unchangeable aspects (race, nationality, gender, sexuality) but on the choices we make every day.
I want to be the kind of person people can trust, and that I can trust. With every choice I make as that person, I come closer to becoming her.