What motivates you?

I spend about as much time thinking about what needs to be done as doing it. Whether the task is essential, creative, or recreational it is easily put off for later. I make to-do lists…have whole file folders of them. They range from the must do to the would like to do. They are just words on a page but being out in the open is a start. So I decided to make another list...of things that motivate:

• Food and shelter….. have to work. didn’t marry an heiress. The lottery is making someone else well off. I haven’t yet invented the next great thing.
• 6 months same as cash….is the road to ruination paved with easy finance? Doesn’t take long for multiples of $98 a month spread out for a year start to add up. Got to have that new electronic item or lawn furniture.
  
• Avoidance of pain…
  
• Propagation of the species… that’s for the 20 and 30-somethings.
  
• Pursuit of pleasure…I love to listen to mostly old rock and blues while editing pictures. Gave the golf clubs away. Not what I'd call pleasureable.
• Fear the neighbors will complain… the neighborhood has specific rules prohibiting the old washer on the front porch or weeds above waist high. ..hmm maybe that is why some folks live way out in the country.
  
• Fortune…that is for the risk takers.
• Fame? No… I seek the lower profile. The witness protection program looks attractive. If I ever write that book- definitely a pseudonym.
  
  I had to give up balancing the checkbook. (never could quite get around to it) Now, as crabgrass is calling my name...The recycling piles are leaning... The hand tools from the last 5 projects have accumulated on what used to be a workbench. I respond fairly well to the time honored honey-do list. But some times I yearn for something definitive. Tell me what to do next. e.g. “put down the mouse…step away from the computer.” Ouija Board? Not concrete enough. I want a clearer sign. Like, I’m stuck on a corner. I want to know… Walk or Don’t Walk. -James