Zilch

Just one word?
yeah

A lot of the time, the things we need the most aren’t exactly served on a silver platter. There are things that require determination and a lot of motivation- but more often than not we as humans want to be appreciated. We want someone to tell us that what we are doing is making an impact and that what we are doing is something meaningful. Truth is- most of us live so much of being appreciated- that the one time we don’t get the feedback we think we deserve and it hurts. It makes you lose motivation and sometimes it really makes you want to quit.

This is precisely what happens if you do something not because you really really want to do it- but because you’re doing it for something- something that you aren’t getting. There won’t always be someone to come pat your back and say well done- there won’t be people to say they’re proud of you for your struggles. More often than not, it is human nature to see just 10% of the journey- we think we’ve seen it all once we see the tip of the iceberg- but that’s the farthest thing away from the truth. We don’t see most of it and what we don’t see, we can’t appreciate. The reason I say we can’t criticize is that we all know that’s a lie- we assume a lot of things- especially about celebrities being two-faced and we do criticise. If you ask me- if we can critcize, we can appreciate but that’s simply not how the world works- I’m sorry Nelson Mandela- If we can be taught to be hate, we can be taught to be love might be true- but if we can be taught to criticise, we might never learn to appreciate.

So, what do we do? It’s not like we can keep going on without motivation right? Truth is- in a lot of cases, motivation stems from one quality- for many, it’s their ability to work hard- others it’s competition but most importantly it is discipline. Whether or not you like something- you need to be disciplined- so at least you are doing something. One day the motivation you lost will strike and well- at least you won’t lose momentum. This might seem great, but you might be wondering, what’s that have to do with Zilch?

Zilch means nothing in a broad sense- and the truth is we need to create something that we don’t have. It’s not about creating everything and anything- it’s about creating the one thing you need to put things either back in place or at least something better than square one- you need to create it yourself. For example- when it comes to doing- you can just start by doing a bad job- if you’re a perfectionist this is the worst thing ever- but at least in doing something “badly” you start working- your momentum builds up again and that’s all it takes for your inner critical voice to come alive and force you to do a good job. So do it- start creating the one thing you need or all you’ll ever focus on and be is Zilch.