"I don't care if I break, at least I'll be feeling something". Have you ever felt this way? Do you feel this way now? Then it's time to stop going through the motions and bring change into your life. But you'll have to give everything. Here's the good news, it's totally worth trying.

A song by singer-songwriter Matthew West from his third studio album, Something to Say. It was released in January 2009 as the album's third single and it was a big success.

This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break,
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me.
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way ('cause I don't wanna go through the motions)
take me all the way (I know I'm finally feeling something real)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way (I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go)
take me all the way (through the motions)
take me all the way

I don't wanna go through the motions

TO GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS= To do something in a mechanical manner indicative of a lack of interest or involvement. Here, to go through the motions is to live life in a mechanical way, without putting your heart into it. You just do the things you have to do, keep up with your routine, but there's no passion or love in anything you do. That's the way many people live life, and we all go through those periods at least sometimes.

TO GIVE EVERYTHING is the opposite, to put your whole heart into it, to do things with passion, to be personally and emotionally involved in what you're doing, like everything is important. It is also risking everything trying to get what you want, because you think it's so important that it's worth the risk; to do everything you possibly can to get it.

TAKE ME ALL THE WAY= I'm al yours.
If you do something "all the way", you do it completely, with all your soul, without reservations, fully and completely. In this song, Matthew (who is a contemporary Christian singer) is talking to God, so when he says "take me all the way" he means, I want to be totally yours, I want to live every bit of my life for you. That total dedication and surrender is what will bring passion to his life and bring purpose, so he can have a reason to live instead of just going through the motions.

I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

This is the core message of the song. For many people life may seem just something you have to live, and you go through it like a student doing is homework when he'd prefer to be playing outside instead. That is a dull life, uninteresting, so you get even more distant and keep going through the motions, nothing can really get to you. But what if you really put your heart into your life, take risks, involve yourself with what you do, with the people you interact with? Then you'd probably find out that your life changes, things start to happen, and when you try to do something and fail, that's bad, but the worst things of all is when you just don't do anything at all and you spend your whole life asking "what if I had given everything?, what if I had tried with all my soul, with all your strength?

This is like the woman who is in love with Mr X but she's too afraid to tell him or to try anything because she's too scared of a refusal. She will have to spend her whole life asking, what if I had told him? How could have my life changed? A failure lasts for some time; scaring off inside a safe bubble can bring regret for the rest of your life.

The song was originally inspired by a column that Matthew West wrote in the "Writer's Block" portion of CCM Magazine. During part of 2007, West was a contributing columnist to the magazine, primarily discussing the details and method of his songwriting. In June 2007, his column drew a comparison between songwriting and personal life, talking about "moving through the motions" and writing a "perfectly structured" song; it soon becomes evident, however, that the song lacks inspiration and cannot be "[awoken] from its apparent slumber". Soon afterward "The Motions" was written, based on that concept.

West said he wrote the song after being "tired of that constant settling for a stale faith. God is a God of passion. His true plan for our lives is anything but boring."

In April 2007, he had experienced vocal problems, which led to surgery and a prescribed period of silence for two months, not knowing if his voice would come back or be still in good condition for singing. He said that the experience "brought [the] song to life for me".