Self-Motivation towards positivity

Genghis Khan, after conquering few lands, went to a mountain and started invoking the souls. As per his religious beliefs, the ancestor souls run this world. He saw some lightening that motivated him to start conquering the world. While conquering nation after nation, his army would devastate the entire land, burnt everything and kill every living being. In fact, during one of the conquests, Mongol army even killed insects of that particular land.

There are two basic questions here. One is, what motivated Genghis Khan to conquer the world? Second important point here is, was he justified in devastating the lands and kill entire population during those conquests. I am not writing this article to answer these two specific questions of Genghis Khan; however, I will give my perspective in general to these two questions in this article. My main objective of citing the example here is to discuss how a person can motivate himself or herself without depending on others and whether that motivation will lead to positivity or negativity.?

Almost two decades back, I was desperately waiting for the comments of my scientific article which I had submitted in an international reputed journal. Six months had already passed and there was no response, despite multiple reminders. Finally, I received the comments from two reviewers, both the reviewers had given negative comments. One of the common comments was, that there is no novelty in the work done by me, other common comment was that internet is full of similar sort of work. Fortunately, none of the reviewers had mentioned about the rejection for publishing my work. Final comment from the editor was that if I can revise the manuscript appropriately, they can think of publishing my article in the journal.

It was a challenge for me. There was no additional work which I could have incorporated in the same manuscript. However, I was having alternate option of sending the same article in other less reputed scientific journals. After a debate with myself, I decided to represent my paper to the same reputed international journal in a different way. There was not only a high probability of rejection, but I was also worried about timelines. I somehow motivated myself for giving an another try and putting an extra effort.

I started gathering more information, which helped me in understanding the concepts with more clarity. I modified the complete text and gave my own theories for novelty and its applications, rather than depending on internet. I corelated the work presented in paper exactly with what we do practically in the labs. I also ensured zero typo errors.

Within a month, I received a mail from the editor mentioning that my article has been accepted for publication with no further edits. One of the reviewers mentioned that the article is worth for publication. Next subsequent month I saw my paper published in the same reputed international scientific journal, which had almost rejected the article. It gave me many learnings and most important being that presentation has an impact. Other important thing which I learnt from this episode was that we should keep on writing, that helps in improving communication skills. In this whole episode, nobody motivated me, it was only self-motivation.?

Motivation is derived from Latin word “movere” (to move), which refers to the moving force that energises behaviour. Motivation has been explained through multiple theories, like drive theories (also called as push theories), incentive theories (also called as pull theories), opponent process theory, optimal level theory etc. Drive theory explains the motivation through motivational cycle, as per which there is a drive state and then goal directed behaviour gets initiated by driving state. Once the appropriate goal is attained, this results in reduction of driving state and the cycle continues. Incentive theory explains motivation through some incentives, the incentives could be bonus, salary, increment etc. Like-wise other theories explain the motivation basis on its theoretical concepts. Blocking of behaviour, directed towards a goal, results in frustration. The sources of frustration could be environment, personal inadequacies, conflict between and among motives etc.

There are two main categories of motivation. Intrinsic motivation, in which an individual is being motivated by internal desires. Extrinsic motivation, in which an individual is being motivated by external desires.?

In one of published research, 57% of respondents mentioned that pay rise motivates them. Almost 32% people said that recognition and rewards motivate them. Other important motivational factors responded were promotion followed by extra annual leave. If we closely examine these factors, it is evident that most of the people depend on others for motivation. And, if we apply concepts of motivational theories; in case of non-availability of motivational force, these persons will not only get demotivated but there is also very high chance of frustration. The result is disastrous for both organization in which the person is working as well as for the individual. We get motivated through friends, through our colleagues, through our management. We are dependent on the environment, the culture, and the organization for getting motivated. We do not realize the dependency and we do not realize that the extent of demotivation is much higher than motivation.?

There is a solution and an easy solution, we call this solution as self-motivation. Motivation is a drive or a force which helps us in meeting our goals. And self-motivation is?the internal force that helps us to move on and achieve our goals despite odd situations. Best part here is that we are not dependent on others.

There are multiple tools which can be used for self-motivation. For ease of understanding, we can divide these into two categories. Category one is, when we do not have any control on the situation. This is the most difficult one. We don’t know what is going to happen next, something good may happen or something very bad may also happen. In this category of self-motivation, one has to make a commitment to self that whatever happens, I will not get demotivated.

I remember one stanza from the famous poet (Allama Iqbal) which says “Tund e bade mukhalif se na gabra ae uqab, Ye to chalti hai tje uncha urane k lie”.??(You don’t get frightened of these furious, violent winds, Oh Eagle! These blow only to make you fly higher).

Everything in this universe has positive and negative. A power cell has positive and negative potential. An ion could be either positive or negative. Water when used for drinking is positive and the same water results in flood. Fire is used for cooking food and same fire can destroy cities. A stone can be used to built our house and same stone can hurt a person if it is thrown at him/her. Likewise, any situation in our life can be taken in a positive way or in a negative way.?

Let me give a very simple example. Suppose a group of employees are sitting in a cafeteria and CEO of that company passes by. He pated a couple of employees and ask the group how are they doing. Persons with positive thinking will take this in a positive way, thinking that CEO has done a great job. He is very friendly and he wants to create an open culture. On the contrary, persons with negative attitude and thinking will take this gesture in a negative way. They will question the gesture of CEO, they will express that, CEO being very senior, should keep his decorum. They will also say that because of this action of CEO, people will not respect seniors.

Point here is, we can take any situation or an act or a talk, in a very positive or in a very negative way. It all depends on us. A positive attitude, a positive thinking keeps a person highly motivated.

Category 2 is when we make things happen or set self-goals, and then use these to motivate ourselves. This category is under our control and helps us in keeping ourselves energetic and highly motivated. The first step here is to start asking questions to own self, like Who am I? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What motivates me and what demotivates me? What are my significant achievements? Answers to these questions indeed helps to initiate working on self-motivation tools.

Let me discuss some of the tools which helps a person to motivate himself or herself.

·??????Set your own goal(s):

The goal could be a short term or a long term. Clarify the goal to yourself. The goal could be to complete the reading of a specific book, to learn a new skill, to lose weight, to change a specific behaviour etc. Identify the obstacles and put yourself in action. Handle each obstacle very smartly and keep on reviewing the progress of your self-defined goal. Once the goal is done, enjoy it to the fullest. Treat yourself as a hero and convey this to your close positive friends, whom you think will be happy to know your milestones. Do not stop here, set another goal and if possible, a more challenging one. Make this a habit.

·??????Learn a new skill

Learning a new skill gives a boost to our motivation. The skill could be driving, cooking, learning a new language, learning a new sport etc.?

·??????Create a reward system for yourself

Self-motivated people are never dependent on others, so then why to depend on others for reward or recognition. We can create our own reward system. For example, if we have set a target or a goal, promise to yourself that once I achieve it, I will gift myself a mobile phone, or a pen or a watch (what I want others to gift me). Or I can party myself or give party to my friends and colleagues.

·??????Surround yourself with another motivated people

This world is full of positive and negative people and we do have multiple friends/colleagues with positive and negative thinking. If we are in the company of highly motivated people, they keep on motivating us as well. We always feel full of energy and happy, when we meet such people. We suddenly get positive vibes as soon as we start sharing our ideas with such people. Chose the company of friends very carefully because they are going to determine whether we remain motivated or frustrated.

·??????Maintain a healthy lifestyle

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle does not mean that a person has to go to gym and develop six packs. There are many ways of keeping a healthy lifestyle. A routine walk or a routine exercise also helps in maintaining a good lifestyle. Avoiding smoking, alcohol or any other drugs of abuse, is also one of the ways of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle not only keeps a person healthy, but it also helps in keeping the person energetic and highly motivated.

·??????Encourage yourself to think positively

As mentioned previously in this article, we can take anything in a positive or a negative way. Even a failure should be taken in a positive way, presuming that we learn from failures and can apply our failure experience to achieve success.

·??????Help others

A human being cannot survive without the society, that is why we are called social animal. We all need each other to survive. Help others and that help can be anything. Help in terms of money to those who need it, help in terms of providing guidance to whose who need it, help can be in terms of even providing social services. Helping others gives an inner happiness and helps in keeping ourselves highly motivated.

One of the hurdles for self-motivation is fear of failing. I have seen many people in my life who feel that they cannot, even if it is a simple task to do. Nick Vujicic’s was born with no limbs, i.e. no hands, no legs only a little flipper alike leg. Nick Vujicic lives a life which can only be imagined by most. He is a Painter, Swimmer, skydiver, and a motivational speaker who inspires people with full capability. He would have easily explained to the world that he cannot, but he overcame all fears and today he motivates the world. Many of us know the story of Dashrath who lost his pregnant wife because there was a mountain between his village and the hospital. Dashrath carved out a new path, even if took many years for him to do so.

Discouraging friends and colleagues also play a significant part in hurdles. How many times have we observed that when we want to start something, those negative people surrounding us, create such an atmosphere that we reverse our decision quickly.

There is another important reason for the hurdle, which is, when we do not have any dreams or any defined path. In that scenario, leave self-motivation, the person will not get motivated by anything.

People will hate us, break us and many times rate us, but if we are self-motivated, they cannot even shake us. I remember a story which was published few years back in a newspaper. The story in short, was about a person who was genuinely doing good in India, when his friends and neighbours pushed him to go to Australia. When he could not do good in Australia, same friends and neighbours told him that it was his wrong decision to leave India. His friends and neighbours made a fun of him, asking him when he was doing good in India, was he a fool to leave India. Finally, he came back to India, started a fresh and succeeded but with a learning.

A person will be self-motivated for a theft or even a murder. Self-motivation could be towards positivity or towards negativity or it depends on the party whom you are approaching for an answer. Genghis Khan got motivated, most probably it was self-motivation. Over a period of time, a huge area came under the control of Mongols. They devastated the lands, killed millions of people, but they became the mightiest power of that time. If we think from the perspective of Mongols, it was a positive development for them. And same development was negative and distressed for rest of the world.?

In summary, being dependent on others for motivation, is a mistake done by most of us. Self-motivation keeps us highly energetic and highly motivated. There are different tools which we can use to self-motivate and the self-motivation should be towards positivity.

By

Dr. Arshad H Khuroo

Head Bioavailability and Bioequivalence