Motivation — The Glorified Hoax

Motivation is the excuse we find not to do things. whenever I want to procrastinate I fool myself by repeating the phrase ‘ lack of motivation’.

Awake, arise, and do your shit(Modified the words of Swami Vivekananda). I have repeated that Laziness is the basic characteristic of human beings. To overcome the inefficient, unproductive nature of sitting idle, we tend to find reasons that could enable us to comfort. Basically, we fool ourselves.

What's the common life of a Typical Indian citizen. Born, grow under the family shade, go to a good school, college, get into a decent job (preferably government job), marry(preferably arranged), have kids, look after them, marry them off , if lucky see the grandchildren and die.

the ones who deviate from this path are real rebels in the eyes of society. who is the society by the way. the so-called values embedded in our culture is so outdated. Not every sense. as Aiswarya Rai fittingly replied in a late-night show that ‘ we are kind of people who doesn't need to make an appointment to have a weekend dinner with parents’. In that aspect, the family bound values, not all of them, are positive characteristics of Indian society.

Whenever someone starts a new business, the immediately surrounded ones are unhappy. they want him/her to go for 10/5 or 9/6 jobs. what If someone quits the well-paid job to pursue the so-called ‘passion’?. they were like ‘ are why did you do that, you won't get a steady income, no insurance, how will you pay off debts, who will marry you’. But if the same person makes his/her passion into a profitable income-generating one, these people always start with ‘I told you, I was the only one then supported this one, I really knew you are going to succeed’.

the point is, if you are a failure, nobody will come to comfort you or be friends with you. this failure might be financially or emotionally. the immediate family will be there. but for how long. you can definitely count on your parents and siblings(thank almighty for not altering this system). but who else. Friends circles are constantly changing. we had a system of changing decisions at school every year. so I never able to sit with anybody for more than one year. so like many, I started adapting to it. be friends with someone for a year. next year we won't be in the same class, but we could be friends. so in the end, there are multiple best friends.

So coming back to the point that I started with. Basically, motivation is a hoax to me. if any of your work is motivation driven, I am certain that you are not interested in that. There is a good concept Derek Sivers introduced. It's called ‘oh yeah’ or ‘No’. say yes to the things actually invokes the feeling ‘oh yeah, I am gonna do it’. If any of the things do not excite you that much simply say ‘no’.

saying ‘no’ is an art(too much Austin Kleon!). be a master in it. always concentrate on the things that matter to you, which make you happy, which constantly pushes you to the limits, making you creative, which has the scope for improvement.

We only have one life, make most out of it!.,