Lest We get to full of Our Motivated Selves

 

Yesterday’s post was the nth addressing, perhaps rehashing is a better word, of motivational and inspirational quotes.  As I wrote, this is an area of fascination for me.  Another way to explain it could be an obsession.  Nah, I would never dedicate the amount of time to this to be anywhere close to obsessive about it.

It is clear that motivational quotes, solely, are not the primary driver of change in lifestyle or other self-improvements.  If they were, the Nike adage of ‘Just Do It’ would be all anyone would need.  Heck, we would be a world of perfect humans if that were the case.  The only thing for certain is that Nike sold a lot of shoes and other swoosh adorned clothes and accessories with this tagline.

Earlier this year, in one of those ‘where did the time go’ scrolling through reels sessions, I came across a delightful one:  Demotivational quotes for people who hate inspirational quotes.  I was laughing out loud.  I sent the link to others who would find it just as hilarious.  Here are the demotivational quotes in this reel:

• Smile every day…  as a daily reminder that your life is still a joke.
• Do something nice for someone today.  Leave them alone.  Life is hard enough without your bullshit.
• Don’t let anyone tell you what you can’t do.  That’s a job for your insecurities.
• There’s no limit of what you can be… if you lie to yourself.
• Meditate every day… so you can become an even better selfish bastard.
• It gets better… for a minute or so every now and then.

These are all brilliant and funny.  It is a bucket splash of cold water to anyone worried about their ability to get and stay motivated.  In making light of it all, they remind us not to be too hard on ourselves if the progress is not clipping along as briskly as we might want.

These reels and others come from a website - Sad and Useless Humor:  The most depressive humor site on the internet.  Their About tab says, “SadAndUseless.com was created in 2009 as a sad attempt at humor. And to this day it still is the same old useless site it was meant to be.”  The website is full of content of various attempts at sad and useless humor.  Examples include:

• AI-Generated Gallery: Dogs Pooping In Beautiful Places
• Creepy Santa Photos: Scary Vintage Christmas Gallery
• AI-Generated Images of Advanced Yoga Poses

The demotivational series of videos and reels are all wonderful.  Many of the other posts are more sad and useless than actually humorous.  Sure, there were some amusing chuckles here and there.  But I suppose the website is true to its name.  With a name like Sad and Useless Humor, they can post just about anything they want (kind of like this blog when I am in my ‘blog about nothing’ mood).

It was easier to find the demotivational videos and short on their YouTube Channel than on their website.  They also have 2025 Horoscopes on the channel as well.  Being a Cancer, my horoscope was:

Try not to take this personally but you will continue to be an insufferable prick in 2025.  Thinking that you know everything better than everyone doesn’t make you smart or interesting.  It just makes you delusional and unlikeable.  You will never learn to shut up, will you?  Not in 2025, not in 2026.  Not ever.

So, I got this going for me…

Here are some more demotivational quotes:

• If at first, you don’t succeed… it’s probably never going to happen.
• If you never believe in yourself… you will never let yourself down.
• True love is when two people… lower their standards just the right amount.
• If you’ll keep following your dreams… they’re going to file a restraining order.
• Before you love someone else, you have to learn to love yourself… so there’s no chance of that happening.
• The best things in life… are actually really expensive.
• Don’t hate someone for what they look like on the outside… hate them for what a piece of shit they are on the inside.
• Enjoy the good times… because some terrible is probably about to happen.
• Life is hard… but at least it’s also long and boring. 
• One of the best things you can do in life… is shut the hell up occasionally.
• It’s a beautiful day… to eat leftovers over the trashcan like a damn racoon.

Let me close with the same closing I used in my January 18, 2018 post:  Resolution Update.  It kind of fits here. 

I have often downplayed the Nike slogan. But, maybe it is right. In a 2011 movie, Friends with Benefits, Woody Harrelson played Justin Timberlakes boss. At one point near the end, the Woody character gave the following little sermon:

Hey, everybody wants a short cut in life.  My guide book is very simple:  You wanna lose weight? Stop eating, fatty!  You wanna make money?  Work your ass off, lazy!You wanna be happy?  Find someone you like and never let him go. Or her

Or as Yoda said, “Do or do not. There is no try.”  So I should lace-up my physical and mental Nike's and Just Do It.