Guilty pleasures

One of the biggest negative forces of motivation is guilt. Of course almost all negative forces are very powerful in their motivation. But mostly they don't lead to good actions. Like anger, jealousy or revenge never really resulted in something that you could look back upon fondly. They result in impulsive actions, more often regretted than not. However, guilt has the special distinction of being a negative emotion but resulting in something usually positive. Like eating too much can invoke guilt leading to an effective workout session or diet plan, however short, as penance. Guilt also has the side-effect of extremely heightened senses. For instance, if you lied to someone about being occupied with some other engagement but ended up going shopping, roughly 40% of the random people you encounter begin to resemble the one you are avoiding. And the darting eyes and jumpy demeanor are enough for you to hope you didn't have to lie. Of course if you're lucky, you managed to get past it without any fall from grace. Work situations are some places where guilt reigns supreme. Having indulged in plenty days with little work done, the guilt finally catches up to you and makes you work hard at least for that last week before the vacation (no such luck in my case considering I am writing this at work). But on the other hand, it is the guilt of having written very little over the last 3 months that is making me come up with excuses to write. And another rule of multiple guilts? One outweighs the other. Apparently the blog trumped the cleanroom. Not for long though.. I am headed out there right now. Everyone wins.