Motivation is the desire to do something.

It's as simple as that.

But it's not simple. Anyone who's ever tried to motivate themselves to develop a new habit, start an exercise regime, change their diet or even learn a new skill knows that motivation is not a simple thing. From a psychological point of view, it's far more complex than most of us anticipate - or want.

One cause of this complexity is the unhelpful beliefs that many of us hold about motivation. Here are the Top 5.

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." - African Proverb.

Hello Wayfinders. Today I’m muddling through collective purpose, leadership, and building a better world. Just your average Tuesday😉

If you’ve been following for a while you might have noticed a shift in my writing and podcast post-pandemic. My interest in what helps us to fulfil our potential has pivoted from ‘you, me, or us’ as individual beings, to ‘us or we’ as collectives or parts of bigger systems.

Pre-pandemic I delved into happiness, productivity, self-care, parenting, the brain, emotions, sleep, play, fun, adapting to change, motivation, procrastination, and more. It was great fun and I learned a lot. I hope you did too.

Post-pandemic, this focus on the individual feels frivolous. A little indulgent. For me, it now lacks a sense of meaning and purpose.

A Workplace Psychologist's take on funding constraints, burnout and diminished impact

“One gets to feast on marketing, risk-taking, capital and financial incentive, the other is sentenced to begging.” Dan Pallotta, The way we think of charity is dead wrong

Hey fellow wayfinders. Today I’m muddling through the messiness of not-for-profits and the impact a ‘survival’ system has on people, productivity and problem-solving.

Not just today. I’ve been grappling with this in different ways since I began my first not-for-profit role four years ago. Perhaps today I’m writing to make sense of that experience and the new knowledge I’ve gained as I’ve immersed myself a little deeper in social impact in 2024.

Earlier this year I resigned from my job. My fulfilling, secure employment of three and a half years.

I left a team of people I love, and work that brought me joy, satisfaction and a sense of purpose. I said goodbye to a role that saw me through the tumult of the pandemic and helped me forge a community that I may not have found in any other way.

It was sad.

It was difficult.

It was a long time coming, yet happened in an instant.

Regular listeners of the Potential Psychology Podcast would know that in 2023 I published very few podcast episodes, because life and all of the messy ‘middle-ness’ that I was feeling, which may have been a post-pandemic adjustment situation or may have been something else, meant that I didn’t find the time or the focus for podcasting.

There was something else at play too. After five years and over 100 episodes, almost entirely interviews with experts in being human and human experience, I felt the poddie needed a little refresh.

Many moons ago I wrote a series called ‘One thing I learned this week’. That series is now lost to the annals of time and iterations of my website that I never took the time to back up, but my curiosity and penchant for reflective practice remains. I love to learn, to reflect on what I’ve learned and to integrate that learning into my life and this week I learned something that I can’t believe I haven’t learned before, in all of my 51.16 years.

Like most of us, I have plans and intentions for the New Year. Two weeks in and I’ve managed to:

Write something almost every day ✅

Eat a nutritious breakfast most mornings ✅

Walk for at least 2.5km each day ✅

Not the most challenging goals but a nice rhythm is evolving along with feelings of satisfaction and success.

What I have NOT managed to achieve is my goal of daily yoga practice, even though I…

It’s the end of December. Another year done. These post-Christmas days, when life is slow, allow me time, space and opportunity to reflect. The chance to write things down. To think. To wonder. To plan but also consolidate. What did I learn in 2023? What will I do differently in 2024?

My return to writing has been an interesting process. Venturing back to the early 2010s I wrote to connect and make sense of my world. Over time as my context shifted from contractor to consultant, writing to explore became writing to promote.

I didn't notice the shift at the time. We're often oblivious to the systems that change around us. They are subtle and we’re too deep in them to see them…

The one where I started writing about what psychologists do - and ended up exploring existential vulnerability 🤷‍♀️

The plan for this newsletter was to write about what psychologists do, because it's not always clear or commonly known - even to the profession itself.

Google “what do psychologists do?” and you find the following….

Walking is meditation in motion, when you engage your body and mind. It’s dynamic yet grounding. The rhythm of each step becomes the focal point for your attention which is really all meditation is - the practice of focusing your attention.

Right now I'm in the midst of a career mess. I won't call it a crisis or drama or anything that compels me to resist or repel it. If life and work to 50 have taught me anything it's that curiosity serves us well when we're uncomfortable. Instead of fighting, lamenting, or seeking to resolve it, I find myself asking curious questions.

Welcome to The Messy Middle - the new update for Potential Psychology. I’m thrilled that you’re here. Having a community of readers makes the challenge of putting words and ideas on a page a little more enticing, a little less daunting. Sharing those thoughts and words with like-minded souls I hope, connects my thinking with yours, inspires and motivates.