Having listened to a motivational speech, or having attended a two day leadership seminar or having seen a video of a physically challenged person living a full life or having heard the ‘rags to riches’ stories, you may have felt a new rush of enthusiasm and confidence in you for achieving whatever you wish to achieve. You may have cried during the session, laughed at your silly living ways and vowed to immediately bring the change you want to make. After the event, you are so impressed and moved that you can’t stop praising the event as one of the best you ever attended. You start implementing the lessons received during the event. You are ready to act, you are determined and positive. You hit the gym at 6.30 am, call a staff meeting to share your new found vision, call a friend or meet a relative to make amends, start a 20-minute meditation routine etc. You are ready to give another try where you were in despair before. You try being more patient with people and situations. You seem to be aware of your anger, ego, jealousy, resentment, worry, guilt, despair, anxiety, and other emotional spoilers. You try to control them. You feel light and peaceful. Your self-esteem improves. You are ready to take on the world with a joyful zeal.
But soon this magic of motivation wanes off. You go back to the same old behavior. The anger, ego, jealousy, resentment, worry, guilt, despair, anxiety etc. return to haunt you. Despite having paid a yearly subscription you stop going to the gym. You now read a motivational book, or find a new guru to guide you and the same cycle is repeated. Why does this happen? The more we were impressed and moved with the motivation the more frustrated we are. We are unable to understand why the fire gets extinguished. You blame yourself and conclude that you cannot be consistent. Your self-esteem takes a severe beating.
The good news is that you are not alone. The problem is not with you but with your motivation. Motivational lectures, books, videos etc. are like pain killers. They temporarily kill the pain but do not cure the disease. Motivation has an effect only for a short period and then it dies. Motivation normally fails because there is no sustainable internal energy. The burden of motivated positive thinking is a burden which instills guilt and frustration.
Yes, sometimes we all need a friendly push. Motivation has a place. The intent of this review is not to completely dismiss motivational content. For some people, it may be working in some areas because in them the fuel was already there, and the fuel just needed a spark which was provided by the motivation. Though, this spark could have come from anywhere. Motivation also works where a short term jerk is required. For e.g. a motivational speech during half time can improve the football team’s game in the second half. Motivational speech by a sales manager can motivate his team to achieve year-end sales and targets. A motivational speech some days before the examination can encourage a student to try harder. During a military action, motivational speeches are indispensable. Motivation requires a lot of pushing and prodding from yourself or the leader. Motivation is needed when you are performing a duty which you ‘have’ to do.
Motivational content can motivate you for a short time. Did you ever wonder why it is so? It is because it arouses the desires in you which are already there in you. Beyond this nothing happens. It does not give you additional bravery; it just tickles your existing desires and will power. But this tickling is unsustainable and at times irritating too.
We as humans are already motivated for life, freedom, and happiness. A person who knows he has diabetes doesn’t need any motivation to stop eating sugar. He deeply understands and is fully convinced that sugar is poison for his self-health. He knows that life is more important than the taste of sugar. We can do what we really want to do.
Your wildest dreams do not need any motivation to act. On the contrary, you are doing too much to stop yourself from following your dreams. You want to act but your fears and doubts are stopping you. You do not need the motivation to act, but an inspiration to overcome your fears and doubt. Fears and doubts don’t have a place if you are striving for something whose importance and urgency you are fully convinced. Motivation is needed in striving for achieving something, the importance of which you are not fully convinced. Whether you achieve it or not, you are confused.
What we need is an inspiration. When it comes to maintaining the energy to achieve your dreams and goals, there’s nothing like inspiration. In a motivational event, the videos have shown or stories told or methods suggested belong to people who are inspired by some idea, not just motivated. Einstein, Darwin, APJ Abdul Kalam, Steve Jobs, Jyotiba Phule, RRM Roy have all been inspired, souls. Inspiration cannot be copied. You have to realize your own inspirations. The only wisdom you can take from a motivational event or book is that inspiration is a must, full stop. The striving under inspiration itself is fulfilling. You achieve it or not, you are satisfied. The word inspiration means to blow life into, to breathe. Inspiration blows life into your dreams and goals, and then they pull you. Motivation is a push. Inspiration is a pull.
Motivation is pushing and psyching yourself up. It is feet pounding and chest beating like a wrestler for a thirty-minute bout. It is shouting: I am the best, I can do it, I will do it, I will be successful, I am happy etc. It is just noise, no music, no grace, no harmony. Not sustainable.
You must go through the following three stages before you float effortlessly on the river of inspiration.
Firstly, take charge and responsibility for your life. To learn to own everything takes courage. As Dr. Milton H. Erickson said, “Most people walk through the world in a trance of disempowerment, our work is to transform that into a trance of empowerment.” Do not get in the trap of responsibility shrugging stuff like miracles, babas, astrology, fate and the like. They make you feel helpless and then delude you into vain hopes and wishes. Accept your social, political, economic, cultural and personal situation and carve your way through it. Society does not like people who take total responsibility for their own self. Society wants to make you dependent so that you contribute back in some form for its support. It wants to kill your confidence so that you fall in line and follow their old stupid ways. Trim your connection to your conditioning; and realign with life freshly. Then and only then: you are aware, you are no more an automaton, you are unburdened, free as a bird, beaming with confidence gained by self-empowerment.
Secondly, Inspiration is about listening to those inner voices. That needs courage because you don’t know what you will hear. To listen to this whisper you have to silence the surrounding chatter. Give some time to yourself. Be patient. You will realize your inner callings for experience, love, passion, and purpose. You feel an unstoppable urge to do what these inner voices whisper. For following this urge you do not need the clutches of motivation. A motivated person will say “I want to do it”. An inspired person will say “You can't stop me from doing it.” Because now you know what you want to explore and experience before you die, you know how beautiful it is to flow in love, you know the calling of your heart which is your passion, you know what difference you want to make in the world-which is your purpose, and you know life is short. Patanjali said when you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations. Your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, wonderful world. Patanjali also said dormant forces, faculties, and talents - things you thought were inaccessible and unavailable to you - come alive when you are inspired. You discover yourself to be a far greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
Thirdly, Inspiration is about prioritizing. Our problem is not a lack of motivation but lack of prioritizing. Set your priorities after realizing what is important at different stages of life, and how quickly the stages pass. To be able to follow your inner voices you realize the true importance of self, sensations, people and things. You know how important the health of your mind and body is, you know how insatiable the joys of the senses are, and you know the importance of people and things. Once you set your own priorities you are inspired by them. Sometimes we know what we want but we don’t realize the degree of its importance and urgency in time. Otherwise, why do we need a heart attack to start hitting the track? Why do we need a bloated stomach to stop consuming junk food? Why do we need to see our near ones frustrated before we start some introspection? Why do we need to see death coming, to realize that we could have been more loving and more joyful? Why do you need to see your huge bank balance at the far end of life to realize that you could have spent more? Think about these questions before they start staring you in your face.
Realign, Realize, and Prioritise. That’s enlightenment. That’s an inspiration. All I want to say is: “it’s urgent”.
Love,
Mahendra Chaturmutha
