How Personal Motivation Carries a Project
Sometimes it surprises us how little it takes for a vague idea to become a reliable path and how much it takes to actually walk it. At Aktivismo we keep noticing that motivation does not work like a fire that burns constantly, but more like a light we have to shield when the wind picks up. We often talk about what carries us when we are tired, when decisions feel heavy or when we wonder whether what we are building is really helping right now.
When an impulse becomes a direction
Many of us know that first moment when something clicks inside. It is not always anger, not always hope, often it is simply a quiet sentence like: Surely there is another way. A lot has grown from a sentence like that for us, not as a master plan, but as a careful movement. We did not start Aktivismo because we were certain, but because we could not shake that mix of restlessness and care. The longer we work on it, the clearer it becomes that personal motivation is not just starting energy, but also a compass, because it reminds us what we are spending time, attention and responsibility on in the first place.
The quiet reasons that last longer
There are motivations that are loud and others that are quiet. Loud is the desire to change something, quiet is the need not to become cynical. It is often the quiet reasons that carry us, because they do not live on applause. When we talk as a team about impact, it is not only about reach or speed, but about whether we are genuinely easing people’s load without taking away their agency. That stance is not a big slogan on the wall, but a daily weighing up, and as Johann I keep noticing how much calm there is in it when we allow ourselves to start small and still stay serious.
When motivation is not enough and something still moves forward
On some days motivation simply is not there, and we can sit with that better now than we used to. We have learnt that a project does not fail because we doubt, but rather because we pretend we never do. Especially at Aktivismo, where the point is engagement, we meet the pressure to always be meaningful particularly sharply. That is when kind structures help, and agreements that stay human. Motivation is not our only engine, but it is the voice that tells us why we are setting off at all, and when it grows quieter, habits, trust and the knowledge that breaks are also part of responsibility carry us.
Between we and I: carrying it together
We experience Aktivismo as something that does not live inside a single person, but comes into being between us. Madeleina brings a kind of attentiveness I could not sustain on my own, that fine sense of whether something feels open and welcoming. I often bring the urge for order, for a clean system, for the next step that is actually doable. Our motivation becomes steadier when we share it with each other, because then we are not only questioning our own inner world, but also the picture we hold together. We remind each other that we are not building a tool to impress people, but a space that helps them find the first step without it feeling like an exam.
Motivation and responsibility: a difficult pair
Personal motivation can be warm, but it can also dazzle if we do not examine it. You can feel that especially where we work with technology. We like the speed, the clarity, the relief, and at the same time we know a shortcut is not automatically a good route. Our motivation to make engagement easier has to keep standing alongside the responsibility not to simplify engagement until it loses its depth. That is why we talk so much about boundaries, about data protection, about control and about the need to review content. Not because we are afraid of mistakes, but because we respect the people who come to us with what matters to them.
In the end, motivation is often a form of loyalty
If we are honest, a large part of motivation is made up of coming back. Not the big feeling, but the decision not to drop the thread, even when it feels thin. We notice that the project carries us as we carry it, and there is something comforting in that. Perhaps, in the end, personal motivation is less a storm that moves everything, and more a loyalty to the thought that it is worth trying, together, gently and with our eyes open.
