Motivation vs. Enthusiasm

Do you know the difference between motivation and enthusiasm?

From my thesaurus:

motivation: (n) ambition, inspiration

enthusiasm: (n) keen interest, excitement

From my dictionary:

Motive: some inner drive, impulse, intention, etc., that causes a person to do something…; incentive; goal.

Enthusiasm: 1. orig. supernatural inspiration or possession; inspired prophetic or poetic ecstasy. 2. Intense or eager interest; zeal; fervor.

From my journal:

2/27/2023

I have been praying for motivation and enthusiasm for my writing. I don’t “feel” enthusiastic, but I am making myself do things I’ve been putting off. Such as:

Edits on Animal

Formatting print version of TFTA (The First Time Again)

Getting print cover for TFTA

Getting font for my name for FB & Twitter headers

Creating headers

Reading through Animal one more time (aloud)

Emailing Noah to see if he wants to edit TWCD

And that’s saying a lot because I haven’t wanted to do any of this and haven’t done it.

I also e’d the woman who wants to be my assistant to see if we could meet up.

As of this writing (3/9/2023) I can report that I have accomplished all the above and more. I may not have done any of it enthusiastically, but for whatever reason (answer to prayer?) I was motivated TO GET IT DONE.

What I’ve determined is I don’t have to be enthusiastic about what I want to accomplish to accomplish it. I just have to be motivated.

Motivation moves things forward.

Enthusiasm may be cheering motivation on, but it doesn’t accomplish anything.

Enthusiasm is a state of mind.

Motivation is a place of movement and action.

This explains why I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for writing, but I have to dig deep to find the motivation to do all things publishing.

Why be motivated to publish? So what I enthusiastically wrote can be read.

If you haven’t heard, writing the book is the “easy” part. It’s NOT easy, it’s just a creative endeavor most writers enjoy way more than the non-creative work of publishing and promotion.