I don’t feel like doing this boring work

BACON -- A small collection of intrinsic triggers that stoke your creative fire regardless of circumstance

We all have those triggers that freeze time, make our left eyelid twitch, activate our deepest cravings and human hungers and move us to execution. Those currencies that, when sniffed out, override our excuses, tap into our natural motivations and drive us to do things. The goal is to find your bacon. To figure out why you do what you do. Once you identify that personal and unique source of leverage, anything is possible. Once you identify the small collection of intrinsic triggers that stoke your creative fire, nothing can stop you. Once you learn how to activate your own internal generators, there’s no reason you can’t become a prolific collector, creator and communicator of ideas. But you have to dig down through the many levels of why. You have to flesh out the drivers that motivate you on an hourly basis. One exercise for doing so is to sit down and physically map out every single decision you made on a given day. Phone calls you made, conversations you had, food you consumed, activities you did, people you saw, ask yourself, literally, why did you just do what you did? What about you? What bacon can can help you rationalize anything? A similar exercise for uncovering your natural motivations is to plug yourself into the following formulas: I can feel like I’ve achieved a return on investment, as long as blank. I can rationalize anything, as long as it has something to do with blank. I can accomplish anything, as long as I have the organizing principle of blank. I can stick with a new behavior, as long as I can find a way to incorporate blank. I can trick myself into doing something daily, but only if I get the chance to blank.