Barbaric, but With Pants on, For a Change

Belated Summer Solstice, everybody! I do not know what it is about this time of year, but I often have a knockdown drag-out fight with procrastination, and almost always around this same time of year. I start off the year well enough, working hard and efficiently on the projects and personal tasks I have at hand, and yet every year, around this time I start to slip and slide, get lazy, sleep in more often, and eventually quit working on everything! GRRR! It is as though I put myself on Summer vacation. Well this year I have resolved to stop doing it...hopefully.

There seem to be two minds on the subject of self motivation. One side claims it does not exist and you simply have to have the discipline to get out of bed in the morning, start moving your body, splash cold water on your face, jam in those ear buds and pump some high tempo music at a considerable volume, while pouring yourself a hot cup o’ Joe! To show up instead of sleeping in, basically. The other side insinuates that one can self motivate, and if one has trouble in this area, listening to motivational speakers, plundering YouTube for motivational videos, buying / reading self-help books and yes, even attending seminars will help.

I found out, from subscribing to Improvement Pill on YouTube, that what you really need is an Internal Locus of Control. In other words, if you convince yourself that you and you alone are in control of your own life and that the only thing that is going to produce results is hard work, then you will have no problem with doing what you are supposed to be doing, instead of procrastinating, playing video games, sleeping in and just plain ol’ being lazy.

The only problem is that I have actually accomplished some things. I’m whittling away at the roleplaying game, I’m losing weight, trying to stay on my diet, putting on muscle, staying busy, I practically never...almost never...play video games anymore, and my mood and sleep patterns have improved because I’m eating more fruit and vegetables with my meals, and have dramatically cut down on sodium, sugar, gluten and soy. So I get into this mindset that I need a little reward.

So take a little reward, right? And I did. I went out, bought some junk food and gorged myself in front of the tube yesterday. And do you know what happened? I felt like shit, and did not want to do a single damn thing. And do you know what I did about that? I worked on my projects anyway!

My guy here needed an upgrade after I sketched out this humorous earlier take on watercolor paper, so I’ve taken some tracing paper, and began making improvements. A curious snarling expressing with eyes too large and way too effeminate hair (Fabio, anyone?) is now replaced with a cocksure expression, better shaped eyes and a rougher almost mullet haircut. His arms are too long, but that is nothing a little turd polish (Adobe Photoshop) cannot cure. And there you go. From zero to...well not quite hero. Let’s call it less than zero! Ha! They look a little like brothers. And I also had time to ink up a new critter! (Images below) Enjoy!

That’s it for now. If you haven’t done so already, you are more than welcome to follow us on social media. Cre8v Knuckledraggr on Pinterest, #cre8vknuckledraggr on Instagram and The Creative Knuckledragger on Facebook. Thanks again, be safe and have a great weekend! Happy Friday.

SLiM All Images Copyright © Stephen L. Morris 2020 All Rights Reserved