Maggie - Coyle - Ch. 5-7

 I have mixed feelings about these chapters if I'm being honest. Chapter 5 focuses a lot on the power of ignition and motivation which is what I struggled with the most. The difficulty I experience is that no matter how ignited or motivated I am to do something that brings me so much joy, I have a mental neuro-divergent disability which prevents me from doing simple, enjoyable tasks entirely based on "ignition." This, very unfortunately, includes practicing. I love singing. I love music and making music with my talent with my whole entire being, it is my purpose and my life but it takes everything inside of me to get up and do it. This is painful, honestly. I lack the dopamine that gives me the ignition to do what I love, so the discussion of how an external factor ignites a person into becoming better really made me think about how I can approach this problem differently. The Tom Sawyer excerpt on page 107 really caught my eye, and it's not for the reason he included the excerpt (Ben suddenly having a moment of ignition inspired by Tom) but instead because of what Tom says. "Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?" This lit something inside of me. Moving forward, instead of depending on the dopamine I don't have and the motivation that's not enough, I think bringing gratitude into my practice and active decision-making to do so could really make a difference for me. Not everyone has my voice, my talent, and gets to use it everyday, nor does everyone have the opportunities I do to grow a gift I love most.

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