What’s Wrong with the Motivation?
We probably have more motivation presently than anytime during existence of our species. There are several things to motivate us - songs, quotes, movies, videos. And we also have an easy access to it all with our mobile phones and other devices. This being the case, why still people continue to suffer and world still fails to achieve betterment?
We have associated motivation directly to success. We think it is an essential, sometimes major ingredient to achieve success. Whether it is someone trying to study for their important exams, or a player about to walk in the field for his sports match, many think watching and hearing something that motivates them is enough to give them that mental awakening and power which will be sufficient to do the job.
It is true that motivation indeed is essential part of our lives. We need something or someone who motivates us and pulls us out of our misery.
But motivation is not the same as discipline and hope, and many other things, though it might include some part of these other things. I am not the first person to say that discipline works better than motivation. Lots of people previously definitely acknowledged it. Viktor Frankl, Haruki Murakami have told us about the importance of love, hope, meaning in our lives.
Also, motivation might actually put more stress instead of lifting away the stress from our minds. Imagine watching a motivational video and still not feeling to do something. And then the stress and thoughts about why I am not able to do it even though I do have enough motivation? We also cannot expect ourselves to be motivated 24/7. Always being under motivation we would exhaust ourselves. We enjoy happiness because we go through sadness or other normal states. We can enjoy something sweet after eating something spicy. We can relax in leisure after we have worked hard. Experiencing other different states makes us aware and better acknowledge each of these states. Being continuously under any one state will have no meaning. Even getting bored actually could help us do something meaningful or appreciate the time we spend with our friends. The way other emotions – happiness, sadness, anger, etc. are all normal and a part of our lives and of a human mind, we should allow ourself to not be motivated and still feel OK.
If we go through history, we can certainly say that many of the sufferers, including those who suffered during apartheid and holocaust probably didn’t have anything to motivate them. Their environment actually had something that would suck remaining fragments of motivation out of them. But still we know several of the survivors still made it through. How?
They might not have had motivation, but in their miseries and sufferings they did have or they tried to see hope and love, and meaning in life. They also had presence of empathy.
Today there’s a lot of motivational material, both paid and free. But the other ingredients are lacking. They might not be present all at the same time, as required. Many have enough of things to motivate them, but they might not necessarily also have someone to love or someone to love them. They may be lacking hope. They may be failing to see meaning in their life.
I or anybody might never understand the complete ‘recipe’ to live a happy and meaningful life. Even the best ‘chefs’ aren’t complete and perfect. But is there any such thing as a perfect ‘recipe’? The same ‘dish’ can be cooked by different people with different combination of ‘ingredients’ following different ‘recipes’, yet it can still be ‘delicious’.
Knowing that there might not be just any one particular perfect way to live our life, and there are multiple acceptable ways to find happiness and meaning in our lives in itself can be a very much needed awakening.
As I am writing this, I am still incapable of holding onto happiness and understanding meaning of life, of my life…
Dhairyasheel Dayal