But in order to
offer anyone one’s “sage advice”, you have to get them into your office, and
that hasn’t always been the easiest thing to do.
Kinda like the
Texas Rangers and that movie classic, “Field of Dreams.” The Rangers just built
a new one and a half billion dollar stadium. But unfortunately, the best known
line in the movie, “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to them. (At
least not during the age of the Corona Virus when the team owners have made the
decision not to sell tickets to this season’s games).
But to be fair, over
the past three decades as a pastoral counselor, it hasn’t been so much a lack
of the multitudes sitting on my counseling couch, but, rather, two populations
in particular, the male, and the paying variety of clients; both of which are
integral to the wherewithal and success of the average therapist.
But I see I have
begun my little diatribe off the beaten track, and need to get back on it.
Pt. 2
For those seekers
of wisdom, who have chosen to step across the threshold of my office, I do
something that most counselors don’t…
I teach
Matter of fact, I
honestly have never heard of any other counselor, dead or alive, who instructed
their clients to “bring a notebook,” and “write this stuff down.”
And one of the
concepts I teach is:
“Motivation is
highly overrated.”
And almost, without
fail, when I have spoken those well-worn words, my client has looked up from
their notebook with a look of virtual amazement on their face, as if this was the
most novel, (or most ridiculous) statement he or she ever heard in his or her
natural life.
And with this, I
continue.
“Yes, motivation is
highly overrated. For you see, when someone says, ‘I just need to get
motivated,’ what they are really saying is, ‘I just need to work myself up into
some sort of frenzy before I will be capable of achieving whatever it is that I
want to achieve.’”
(and)
“(Allow me to say
it again), motivation is highly overrated. For you see, motivation is little
more than an emotion. And if you wait ‘til you feel motivated, you may be 103!”
End of diatribe.
(At least for now).
by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending
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