Motivation

Productivity, constructiveness, profitability, usefulness, effectiveness.

Defined by whom?

And thus continues the struggle to be defined only by myself and God, and not by how many marks I get out of 100 or how much I study or what scholarships I win or which university I go to or what clothes I wear or who my friends are or what I do with my spare time.

I'm not using the word 'productivity' this week. I've found it hackneyed, vague, and ultimately dissatisfying. I might use some synonyms, but the point of the exercise is to realize that I define my own productivity. For example, because I am sitting here putting thought into this post, this is productive. In a minute, I will pick up my One Year Bible, and that will be productive, and then I will curl up in my chair and attempt to make my most important relationship less lopsided - the other side needs a chance to talk, you know - and that will be more productive than the essay on cohabitation vs. marriage I'm going to write or how many times I play The Entertainer on the piano.

Here's signing off productivity.

I am unwritten,
Can't read my mind
I'm undefined
I'm just beginning
The pen's in my hand
Ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten, yeah

Oh, oh

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries
Are outside the lines, oh yeah yeah
We've been conditioned
To not make mistakes
But I can't live that way oh, oh

The rest is still unwritten
The rest is still unwritten

-Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten