A number of factors play into what motivates each of us: our past, our goals, our socioeconomic status, who we surround ourselves with, and more. But are we pushing ourselves for the wrong reasons?
As with much of this blog, my personal experiences shape my writing. The idea that bigger is not always better has been rushing through my mind in many forms for a long time now.
When I stopped playing football I wanted to lose weight. When work gets complex, I always look to take away instead of add more. And now, it’s about doing something that matters instead of something to brag about.
FASTER
Last week I was making some grammatical and typographical errors and I realized I needed to slow down my writing. I was speeding through my work and not giving it the attention it deserves. I have started to accumulate more paid work and for a brief moment, my blog became a chore. I felt I needed to rush through that chore as fast as possible to get to the other work.
When I slowed down, I realized that I still love to write and that I should enjoy it rather than speed through it. I won’t be writing 5 days per week anymore simply because I cannot put out quality content every day like I used to. That’s hard to say, and it took some humbling of my ego to write.
But 2 or 3 days of high(er) quality work are better than 5 days of mediocrity. So I’m taking a deep breathe, stepping back, and I’ll be working on improving my writing.
One of the things I wanted to do when I started this blog was write for 90 days straight, and I did. I found “my voice” during that period. Now it’s time to work on my mechanics and bring up the quality of content I am providing.
Some readers might get the impression that I am burning out, but that is not the case. In fact, it is quite the opposite. I feel more passionate than ever about my writing, which is the reason I want to make these specific improvements.
BIGGER
Katie & I watched a documentary the other night about steroids in America. It followed 3 brothers that grew up in the same house, 2 of them regularly took steroids and 1 of them didn’t. It showed many sides of the argument for and against steroids and it was a well-rounded look at how we view performance enhancers in our modern day society.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster explores the “win at all costs” mentality that we seem to idolize here in America. The middle brother (the film-maker) went through an on-screen struggle of whether or not he should believe that he needs to be bigger (through steroids) to be happy with his life. You can see where his view of success is different than his brothers’ and how he starts to realize that being the biggest isn’t always what makes one happy.
Many of the people they interviewed were larger than life – literally and physically. But most of them had very real issues and they were not proud of who they had become. Some had to lie to spouses about their steroid use, others lived in denial about their obsessions to be biggest, and some justified their actions by saying, “Everyone’s doing it.” Whatever helps them sleep at night I guess.
It seemed as though most of the people were searching to fill a void in their life. The middle brother is the only one that realized whatever he was missing wasn’t going to be found by using steroids.
It’s sad to think how many people are like the other 2 brothers: obsessed with being the best, or the biggest, and the richest. We’ve all been there at some point or another, it is a hard to trap to get out of. And we’ve all seen people push family and friends aside because of one ego-maniacal pursuit. They forget who they are, where they come from, how they got there, and the people that mean the most to them.
STRONGER
Instead of being the biggest, richest, or the fastest, I want to be the strongest. To have the strongest relationships I can. To put out the strongest quality of work I can. To be the strongest learner I can. To be the strongest in the areas that allow me to help others.
I have realized that what I do with my life isn’t about how much money I make or what title I have. It’s not about being the biggest. Over the past few months I’ve been able to volunteer, spend time with my family, and work on who I want to be. I have had a much more fulfilling personal journey than I ever could have imagined when I stepped out on my own.
In other words, I have realized that life is about quality, not quantity.
In which areas of life or work can you improve the quality and focus less on the quantity?
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Have a great day!
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