🟨 "Motivation"? What even is that?

A tiny check-in for when motivation disappears.

🫠 Just me, sitting here, not moving

Sometimes, you just can’t get motivated.
At work, in life, anywhere.

You know what you’re supposed to do—
but your body won’t move.

Or worse:
your body can move,
but you have no idea where to go.

Motivation, as we call it, is oddly elusive.
I’ve been suffering from a complete lack of it lately.

Did it vanish into the void?!

You know what? I just had to break it down.
—because why not?

🤔 Breaking down motivation

I’ve written elsewhere that I think humans operate on two things:
subjectivity and emotion.
(What does that mean? Let’s ignore that for now.)

But I started thinking about how these two elements might work together:

• Subjectivity = Direction
   Where your sense of meaning or attention is pointing

• Emotion = Force
   How strongly you're being moved in that direction

So maybe:

subjectivity × emotion = a vector
  = “How strongly am I trying to move, and in which direction?”

That might be what motivation really is.

🧭 A bit more detail, if it helps

Subjectivity (direction)
→ What are you drawn toward?
→ Where does meaning seem to live for you?

Emotion (force)
→ Are you being pushed or pulled toward that direction?
→ Is there joy, anger, urgency—any emotional push?

Vector (the result)
→ The actual flow of intent that turns into action

That’s why motivation drops when either piece is missing.
No direction? No movement.
No force? Still no movement.

😏 A bit of code, just for fun

I started wondering if human thinking could be expressed as logic.
So just for fun, I tried writing some code for motivation.

class WillVector: def __init__(self, direction=None, force=0): self.direction = direction # The direction of your intent (what you want to do or move toward)  self.force = force # The emotional drive (motivation, urgency, joy, frustration, etc.)  def is_movable(self): return self.direction is not None and self.force > 0 # Example usage: today = WillVector(direction="Write an article", force=3) if today.is_movable(): print("Action possible. Let's go!") else: print("Direction unclear. Energy low. Suggest: snack + flashlight, go find your why.") 

😌 A quiet checklist for unmotivated days

When you’re stuck in that “I don’t feel like doing anything” mode—
it might help to ask yourself two things.

Let’s break it down:

Direction (subjectivity)

• What do I want to move toward?
• Do I actually care about this?
• Does it feel meaningful to me?

Force (emotion)

• Do I have any energy left to push forward?
• Is there any feeling driving me?
• Am I tired? Am I emotionally drained?

Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
You might realize:

“Oh—I know what I want, I just forgot to eat.”
or
“I’m not tired. I just have no clue what I care about right now.”

So yeah.
I’m gonna eat and go to bed now.

Good night 😴