What motivates you, motivates you. Don’t deny it; use it.

There is, or could be, something that motivates you. 

You might not have found it yet. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. 

There are lots of people who feel hopeless about EVER being motivated, because they’re not motivated by what the world says they “should” be motivated by. 

If you’re not motivated by what the world says you “should” be motivated by, it doesn’t mean you’re hopeless. 

It means exactly one thing: you’re not motivated by what the world says you “should” be motivated by. 

That’s it. 

There’s no rule that says what works for ANYBODY else, needs to work for you— and there’s no rule that says what works for you, needs to be even UNDERSTANDABLE to anybody else. 

I remember being a kid, and realizing I was different. 

Realizing the I thought about different stuff than the other kids. 

Realizing that I WANTED different stuff than the other kids. 

Realizing that what THEY wanted, what THEY considered important, would never be what I wanted or considered important. 

At first, it was a lonely feeling. I felt weird, isolated, defective. 

Now, I understand that different means exactly one thing: different. 

So what gets you up in the morning may not be what gets anyone else up. 

What keeps you in the game may not be what keeps any one else hanging in there. 

So what? 

What motivates you, motivates you. 

What turns you on, turns you on. 

What keeps you focused and interested and invested, is what keeps YOU focused and interested and invested. 

No need for shame. You’re not hurting anybody else by being different— and as long as you’re not hurting anybody else, there’s NOTHING wrong with BEING different. 

Instead of hiding it, denying it, disowning it, fighting it— use it. 

Use what motivates you, to motivate you. 

Use what turns you on. Use what makes you interested and invested. 

Become who YOU want to become. Who YOU really feel like. Become the person who feels right for YOU. 

Life is too short to spend at war with ourselves. 

Life is too short to spend wishing we were motivated by and inserted in the same stuff “they” are. 

We don’t have the right to hurt anyone else— but short of hurting anyone else, we DO have the right to be who we are. 

Yes, it might be complicated, given your social or family situation. I’ll never tell you being radically yourself ISN’T complicated. 

But being radically ourselves is often the only way out of the prison of others’ expectations. 

Don’t lock yourself in to anyone else’s vision of who and what you SHOULD be. 

For all we know, we only get one shot at life. 

It’s never too late to be who you really are. 

It’s never too late to embrace what you really want. 

I’d say you have permission— but you don’t NEED permission.