Elbow Grease & Expectations

Elbow Grease

We are very nicely ensconced in the easy life in the West. Compared to non-democratic, non-free nation states, no matter how bad things are in Australia, they are better than in other countries.  Life is simple and easy, but it's all relative, isn't it.  People in free countries don't have to worry about problems they have in, say, North Korea, and vice versa.  So often when we want to achieve a goal, we often expect it to fall from the heavens, rather than do any heavy lifting ourselves to get the desired result.

And this is the case for me right now. I want to get fit, but I don’t want to put in the work at the gym. I want to run a marathon, but I currently prefer to sit on the back deck. I want to write more, but all I am doing is reading books. At some point, the gap between what I am currently doing and what I want to be doing will hopefully diminish, and then I will, I imagine, start to put in some work into achieving my goals.

But, really, it all depends on how badly you want something. I think if you aren’t doing something right now then you don’t want it badly enough. Simple and easy and straight forward and free of excuses.

I am currently reading a book on the early explorers of Antarctica – Mawson, Shackleton and the like. In the early twentieth century, when these pioneers were finding their icesheet feet, they would give up years of their life to achieve a goal, which was, for them, to be the first to conquer various sections of the mysterious Antarctica. An average expedition would last upwards of one-year.

I know things were different back then, but I can’t help but wonder where my motivation and inspiration level would sit on the spectrum back then. Would I challenge the norms for the average woman, or would I just make do with being a chamber maid for a society woman and her lothario husband? I imagine they would not be very high, given my current lack of enthusiasm to meet my goals.

Expectations

Although I don’t believe in making new year’s resolutions that I know I am mostly unwilling and unable to maintain because of a iffy character flaw called ‘human nature’, I am kidding myself that doing an A – Z writing challenge for the month of January is not something that I have pledged to do with quitting. Fine; it’s a resolution then!

There, are you happy, Elizabeth? You’ve just increased the probability of abandoning the challenge half way through the stupid month by calling it a dreaded resolution. You’re an idiot. Um – why am I referring to myself in the third person? Only wankers do that. Stop now.  Good ways to stick to a resolution are planning, having some substance in your goal and be accountable to someone.  Um, I'm accountable to myself I guess.

However, in a display of incredible self-denial, I have decided that my writing challenge is not a resolution at all; it is in fact merely something I expect of myself. It is an expectation, and, in theory, I will feel terrible if I let myself down because I have high expectations of myself.  Something like that. Fortunately I don't have to continue my daily expectation beyond 10 February.