Today’s crossover event is brought to you by Five Minute Friday and Two Writing Teachers. I am publishing for their 17th annual Slice of Life challenge. Today’s FMF word prompt is dedicate. The rules are simple. Write for five minutes. There is no extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, punctuation. It is unscripted. Unedited. Real.
Have you ever considered the difference between motivation and dedication? Think about it. What comes to mind? As someone who struggles with motivation but is actually highly successful, one would assume that I am very dedicated.
One would be wrong.
It is not dedication that drives me. I am a people pleaser. Well. Currently in rehab for it. I have this innate fear of failing other people’s expectations of me. That is pushes my follow through. If there is any follow through.
You see, motivation is all about initiation. It’s about starting the thing. I can start lots of things. I actually start really BIG things all the time. It’s the small things that give me so much trouble…think emptying the dishwasher or putting my shoes away. But dedication. That’s an entirely different animal. Dedication requires follow through.
And that, my friends, is where I lack.
My closets are filled with projects I was motivated to start but not dedicated enough to finish. Why? Because they were only for me. No one was counting on me to finish. My motivation waned when the thing wasn’t dedicated to someone else’s happiness or expectations of me. No one is looking in my linen closet to see if I was dedicated enough to keep is looking as organized as the day I was motivated to clean it. But you better believe they are checking out my Christmas decorations when they come over…or at least that is what I tell myself. I cannot have them believing that I failed at creating the holiday spirit for my children.
Now things like grad school, group projects, party planning…those are things I’ll finish. Again. I’m not dedicated. I just don’t want to let others down…my husband, my department, my kids. It’s easy to be dedicated when you know the disappointment is not yours alone.
I’m working on my follow through. As you can imagine, such an intrinsic project has proved difficult for me to complete. I’m not sure I’ll ever be the person who can dedicate my free time to crocheting a blanket even though I used to do it all the time. They were for gifts.
See. People pleaser.
I’ll likely not be the one to grow a bountiful garden. Because although my motivation is at a 10 in the spring, it drops to a 2 within weeks and I find myself tossing dead tomato plants every fall. Come on. It’s really winter when I get around to it. Likely when I put out that ONE Christmas flower arrangement I made when I swore I was going to make one for every season.
Lack of dedication strikes again.
Karyn In The Kitchen 
I just wrote yesterday for a timed 10 minute exercise….I’d never heard of a Five Minute Friday! I am impressed by what you produced and I appreciate the freedom of allowing the raw writing to just be.
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It is a Christian based group. Just a heads up on that. I really just used their prompts and ignore the rest. I’m going to go read your timed slice!
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Fascinating how you interpreted motivation and dedication from your perspective. I cheer to you for being in rehab for people pleasing.
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One of the hardest things I’ve done. But I realized when I was trying to people please my way through THERAPY 🤦🏻♀️ that I might have a problem!!
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I’m motivated by the fight
and by the welling tears
that fall in gloom of comng night,
hard-driven by the fears
in eyes that should see innocence,
but see another thing,
and so to stop the violence
the world intends to bring
I set my body and my heart
right square in the way
to take the gap and do my part,
and though I’ll die one day,
right now I’m strong and feeling fine,
and this hour’s payback time.
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I love this beautiful piece. Did you just write it?
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Yes, I wrote it from the inspiration given by your lovely, graceful post. Thank you!
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Wow. That is really impressive! THANK YOU!
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This has me thinking about the “not all quadrilaterals are squares, but all squares are quadrilaterals” rule. I’m wondering – – could it be said that “not all motivation requires dedication, but all dedication requires motivation?” You have me wondering this morning about ways to think of this.
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Deep thoughts! I like where you are going with this!
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This really resonated with me – I’m not as much of a people pleaser, but I really struggle with follow-through on so many things so this is prompting me to think about whether the problem is with motivation or with dedication. Visiting from FMF#10
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It’s definitely something to consider.
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I can really relate to “My closets are filled with projects I was motivated to start but not dedicated enough to finish.”
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It’s really a problem.
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Interesting angle to consider motivation and dedication. I think many of us start well in so many projects and good ideas!
We only have so many hours though – I think prioritizing God ideas over good ideas might help us commit and remain dedicated to the tasks that matter, rather than trying to accomplish everything for everybody.
Dawn x
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