The Other side of Motivational sessions

One of my very close friends sent me a video which showed a number of physically challenged people were shown doing amazing things and it was followed by a comment “get motivated”. His note also said nothing is impossible. The video indeed was touching. One watching it would surely rub his eyes to see what the people were doing despite being physically challenged.

I later thought how can I get inspired or motivated by the video. Is it really that the nothing was impossible? I called him. He asked whether I had shown that video my children. I told him not yet and I asked him a question. Whether seeing the video brought about a change in him or his son by which he started attempting something which he thought was not possible. He didn’t answer my question but went on saying how brilliant the video was. Any-way the call ended on a good note. He was very happy that his son who is a very smart bloke was selected to do research in some very famous university in US.

Difference between Motivation and Inspiration

I realized that how do we normally confuse the two words; inspiration and motivation. We surely can get inspired by watching others do things we thought were not possible. But motivation is something that is purely internal. If you are of type which is very passionate and very motivated within, you would always be unless you choose to be in an environment which kind of kills any initiative that you undertake or are pulled down by the statement that no it cannot happen. If you tend to stay in that environment for long-time then it surely will have an impact on you such that you too will become an unmotivated person.

However, if the negative surroundings are for very small duration then your motivation will come back again as that’s your natural nature; e.g. if somebody were to shout at you and gives all negatives that you are good for nothing or you are an idiot etc. for once it will have an impact and you will hate the person for life but that will not take away your inherent motivation. A couple of days after that bad day you will be back to your normal enthusiastic way.

Now put in reverse order. If you are not an enthusiastic person or passionate person but a normal human being who lives life as it comes and happen to attend one of the motivational session for a day or a week or see the video which tells you that nothing is impossible or happen to read a book that tells you how you can be a winner; be very watchful in terms of what you might do after going through that. Just like an over enthusiastic person will come to his normal self after a bout of bad day you too are bound to come to your normal self after bout of adrenalin dose of a video/book or any other session which charges your emotions. Do not take attempt big decisions in that elated self of yours which is very artificial. It’s not real for you. It may be real for someone else. 

The Word Impossible 

The word impossible is relative. What is possible for you may be impossible for me or vice-versa. There is no point getting driven by what I see of you or you see of me. Everyone has his own strength as well as limitations. However, when it comes to earning money or getting to some senior position people are made to read the autobiographies/videos of the successful people hoping that they too will become one. 

In my view, people are living in fool’s paradise who think that just because a few blokes could make it big, you too can or you should try for that; It’s too simple. But that’s how we all tend to get our inspiration from. Our heros are CEOs of companies, successful entrepreneurs and people who have done well on economic front,

To my mind its fine to get inspired from these folks but it doesn’t mean that you should try to start dreaming without knowing what are you are made of. The best take away is to know the principles or rules they followed to be where they are. See if you too can follow these rules. If yes, go for it but not otherwise.

Is life so negative or limiting.

Absolutely not. I am not saying that one should never attempt to do which seems out of your bounds. You should but then you should have a continuous feed of that positive reinforcement or environment that should continue to pull you up once you are going back to your normal self. Now in real life its very tough. Is it not very common that we hear that “the training for those three days was awesome” but how many of us actually retain the impact once we go back to the same settings which made us who we are.

To my mind all the books or videos or sessions which propel you to move forward are like air being pushed in a tyre whose normal state is to remain flat. Each passing time the air will keep flowing out of the tyre unless you make an extra effort to notice (these days you get intimated on your screen of your car) that the air pressure is going down and it needs reinforcement.

Similarly, if you can find ways to know when and what is pulling your motivation and enthusiasm down or what are the limiting factors of the environment which are coming in your way, you need do something. May be its doing yoga every day or may be seeing that video again and again or may be seeing a guru or a well-wisher who just keeps on putting positive vibes in you. If everything is right but you notice that even then things are not happening for you then maybe you need to shift to a different environment which can help you support your endeavors. Haven’t we seen our players perform well when they play in county and acquire new skills of how to face a swinging ball.

All of us are winners in one or the other way.

We don’t need to prove to anybody. We cannot deny the existence of who we inherently are. We need to know ourselves very well before jumping and making decisions of our lives based on what we read and see. Its fine to get inspired by watching others but your motivation is very inherent. It cannot come from outside. You can get reinforcement. It is true that the word impossible does not exist in general but it is very real for each one of us. The meaning or significance is very individualistic. We need to understand and respect that limit of ours and be happy with it. Its fine to get inspired but motivation from outside, think how long it will last.

This blog was first published on Dateself.com