The Motivation Crisis
For most of us, getting motivated is easy: a five-minute Simon Sinek podcast, a small passage from a self-help book, an inspirational quote from Thomas Edison (who is notorious in the scientific world for his self-centeredness and plagiarism) or even Katy Perry’s Firework played in high volume can get us all pumped up to shun procrastination away and start working like a productivity grease monkey. Some people, known as the ‘motivational speakers’, well know this trick — they make a decent living out of it. By providing life-saving million-dollar advice for ‘free’, these men of god guide their listeners through the tough times of their lives. For students — who make the majority of their followers — they provide advice on self-management, delineate up-to-date methods of studying and paper solving, and strategies for handling rejection; for adults, they have a potpourri of advice on developing good relationships, selecting an ideal partner and age for marriage, and settling and erecting a successful business; for the elderly, they propose a bunch of recommendations for calm, serene, and satisfactory old-age days. But is it all truly helpful? Do we need a second party, who himself makes a living through hyperbolic clickbaits, to show us the path to success? Most importantly, do we need someone for a spiritual awakening or to lit the inspirational spark within us? Simply put, NO.
The industry of motivational speaking is based on multiple false premises, prominent among these is the idea that a lengthy, boastful talk can somehow lead to a spiritual awakening within us. But the truth is, this kind of motivation is only a sugar rush — it doesn’t last long. Watching an inspirational Sandeep Maheshwari video can mentally rejuvenate us — we feel that we can conquer the world, that we can surmount any problem. In those moments, productivity reaches its crescendo. We do more work in those few hours than we have done in an entire week. As time progresses, that internal driving force dissipates; we slide back into that old, listless, unproductive state. To regain that enthusiasm, we once again resort to the motivational videos and the cycle repeats itself, but with every repetition, its effect diminishes. Every time you watch the video, you feel a little less enthusiastic than the previous cycle. Then comes a time when that video means nothing; it loses its effect and therefore needs to be replaced with something else, something more potent. Acquiring that immediate sugar-rush becomes harder over time until you can’t get it — and at that moment, you’re simply lost. You don’t know what to do next; you need that dose of motivation, but it is nowhere to be found. It gradually becomes an addiction, a persistent one, and before you know it, you’re in a motivation crisis.
In Pakistan, this is mainstream — a majority of our students rely on some kind of motivational speaking for a mental stimulus. Having a hard time opening your books? No problem, QAS has got some advice. Having issues with time management? A life lesson from Simon Sinek might be helpful. Love life is falling apart? Don’t worry, Tony Robbins has got you covered. Unable to locate the purpose of your life? Lucky you, Sandeep Maheshwari can show you the way. Almost all major decisions of the Pakistani students’ lives are inspired by an inspirational QAS talk, and that’s not healthy. Excessive dependence on some distant motivational speaker for every minor and major decision of our lives — like managing relationships to planning retirements — is mentally crippling. When you can’t decide what to value without an external pep talk, you’re doomed, literally. Until you realize it, you would’ve become an indecisive, diffident person who can’t even decide which book to read without any external assistance.
Motivation is a powerful force; it is the driving force of our lives. But you can’t acquire it from a distant motivational speaker, at least not for long. True, a quixotic self-help book (that constantly repeats the mantra: “you can do it!”) or a short Richard Williams video can elicit a surge of enthusiasm and motivation, but it is ephemeral. Long-term, sustainable motivation cannot be obtained from hollow speeches and books, you need a more concrete underlying cause, and that is where purpose comes into play. It is no secret that every action of human existence is undertaken for a purpose, and that purpose becomes your source of motivation. Whenever you feel exhausted and drained, when you feel that you should reconsider your decisions, that’s when your purpose will sustain you. You can’t focus on studies because you don’t have a reason to — who wants to spend a shit ton of time gawking at textbooks that can otherwise be spent in other rewarding activities? In this critical moment, when you feel drained and indecisive, the underlying purpose of your actions will sustain you. You’ll recall that you’d made a promise to yourself to become a doctor (or engineer, or philanthropist, or a billionaire, or anything else) and that realization will push you further towards your goal. Whenever you’d want to quit, you’ll reckon what you’re losing and what you can gain if you stick to the plan. That’s where you will acquire your long-term, sustainable motivation that will accompany and guide you towards your goal. Motivation comes from purpose — not from unrealistic self-help books or hollow talks.
Some thinkers, like Jeff Haden, have argued that we don’t need the motivation to do anything, we just need action. Haden argues that motivation is just a transient feeling, a “sugar rush”, that gives us a temporary high but can be deleterious in the long-term. There is a quotidian perception that every life-changing process begins with a motivation, but that’s not true. Motivation is not the stimulus, it is the result. It all begins with actions: you take an initial action that leads to a minor victory and that victory engenders a positive dopamine effect (that eureka moment) and that good feeling further nudges you to take action ad infinitum. This is a self-reinforcing loop — action leads to victory, victory leads to euphoria, and euphoria leads to success. There is no room for motivation. But the problem is, how do you convince yourself to take that initial action? It all boils down to your purpose. A resilient purpose and the ensuing guilt of inaction will prompt you to take the beginning step, and once you have done that, everything becomes fluid. That initial step is the activation energy of your process; it is the test of your determination. Once this initial barrier is surmounted, the rest is fluent.
Excessive dependence on ‘motivational speakers’ is mentally crippling and even deleterious. Student life is hard; we accept that. It can be tempting to look for shortcuts and study hacks to get over with all that stressful workload. This is a major reason why so many struggling students resort to motivational speakers for guidance, but it is unhealthy and expensive. Anthony Robbins, the self-proclaimed father of the self-help industry, charges between $3ooo-$10,000 for a single course. For someone already knee-deep into student loans, that is a profligacy. Instead of burning all that money on fruitless courses, one can put it to countless other uses. Even if a motivational course is taught gratis, one should avoid it, as its effect will fade away within weeks, and will eventually become an addiction. Instead, one can employ a simple, reliable, and fructuous strategy that actually works in the long term: take action. Instead of wasting your money and time on courses and speeches, use it to reassess your priorities and convince yourself to take those initial baby steps. Once the activation energy is achieved, everything becomes easy and enjoyable.
