Where are you on the Motivation Scale?
Sometimes, you get gripped by curiosity. You encounter this New Thing, and it sucks you in.
It could be anything: a new app, a game, a sport, a hobby. You just need to know more about it, this New Thing, and you fall down a rabbit hole.
And then there are other times when, instead of curiosity leading the way, the New Thing is forced upon you. It might be for work, or some other unavoidable circumstance, but you are faced with having to learn this New Thing mostly against your will.
It goes without saying that you will get a lot more satisfaction in the first scenario rather than the second.
Curiosity is what drives motivation. Without it, learning is a gigantic drag. If curiosity and inquisitiveness are not in the driving seat, learning becomes work.
But it's worse than that, because if you're not feeling curious and engaged, then you don't care about the stuff you're learning. And it will be much harder to retain information you don't care about. So, in truth, you're not actively learning - you're just going through the motions.
And if you're feeling stuck, it's hard to find the motivation to get out of the rut. Frustration sets in.
I've been there.
I used to hate driving. I was easily distracted, and driving with a carload of chatty passengers was often stressful. Once, while the kids were noisily arguing and drowning out the sat-nav, my overloaded brain just shut down, and I turned the wrong way onto a roundabout.
Luckily no harm was done, other than to my pride, as three lanes of traffic came to a standstill thanks to my incompetence. But my motivation to keep driving after that shitshow fell down a deep dark hole. I avoided it at all costs for years.
But then circumstances forced me back into the car.
My dad died, and my elderly mother had to relocate to live near me. So, for three years, I had to drive every day to go and visit her.
It did me the world of good.
And soon, I found I was enjoying myself behind the wheel. Driving, to my surprise, could be quite zen. I would find myself in a state of flow, my mind blank as I negotiated the road. It helped not having noisy kids in the car, of course.
I needed that push from circumstance to get me back on the road. But once my resistance melted away, I discovered that my fears were unfounded. Driving could be fun, as long as I allowed myself to be open-minded and just roll along with where life was taking me.
And once I accepted that, I got curious about driving. I wanted to improve, and that, in turn, led to a better experience. So I made the mental shift from having to Do This Thing to wanting to Do This Thing. And now This Thing was good.
It won't surprise you to hear I had a similar experience with Blender. From resistance to acceptance, and finally joy, my journey with Blender was dictated by circumstance. But once I got to the happy place where curiosity kicked in, it's been nothing but fun.
Sometimes what feels like a bum deal can work out for the best. Life can surprise us like that.