Motivational Dynamics of Life
How to gain velocity to act from your surrounding
“Stop blaming outside circumstances for your inside chaos.” ― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
Many a times, we come across in our lives points where we have a purpose to move forward but a unsteady will to ensure execution of task. Some other times, the help you get does not necessarily cater to your need for the task.
We all have aspirations in life and the dream of attaining it. But from person to person, the reaction to work towards it varies significantly. The so called hyper — productivity individuals manage to get a streak in success while others easily procrastinate at the first chance.
Irrespective of which category you may fall in, it is worth noting here that there are several factors involved here that influence your will to work — ranging from circumstance, mindset, the eco-system one belongs to and so on.
A good proportion of us jump over to watch Motivational talks in the hopes to turn these factors in ones favor, to ensure the positive mindset to work towards the drive. We all realize that motivation plays a key role in deciding the outcome of our pursuits — how dedicated you are to the goal and how willing you are to put in the effort to see it become a reality.
And so when I recently had a conversation with my good friend Bharath about why people fail to do what they know they should, I thought of an analogy to explain why opportunity to explain how their eco — systems must be. Let me attempt to explain the same with the help of imagery.
The analogy
Imagine you are a sailor. You need to go towards the island to find your treasure. You leave your home, walk over the beach and hop onto your boat. Now there are a few cases to consider regarding how you can get to the island
Case 1: The Eco-system has no support mechanism (no motivation)
There is no motivation to work, no supportive system in place. There is no wind.
There is no motivation, of any sort to help you move forward towards your goal. You tend to remain static on the sea, struggling to row your boats while hoping the tides later turn in your favor. It is much more easier for the sailor to give up the pursuit and return home.
This could be the case where you want to start coding in application development but do not have anyone in the vicinity to help you get started. You might try to read a few blogs and understand what is what but unless you are used to dealing with issues on your own, you will most likely give up the drive.
Case 2: There is a drive in the Eco- system but may be unoptimized for you (20% motivation)
The wind exists but helps only those in alignment — the rest are still in need
The is a support system in place. There is a community of coders nearby where members can share ideas and learn together how to code. The members gain from this motivational Eco-system and they get better.
So this is great right? Except when you are looking for an app development community and you come across only web development members united together. Support exists but may not be tuned to exactly what you need. A change is in the air but only a few really have the same energy level to be synchronous and resonate at best.
The rest have different interests and are either unaffected or negatively impacted by being forced into such a system. Motivation exists but not exactly the way you were looking forward to. Though one might argue at least a few benefit from the support system, is it possible to provide the support each person seeks?
Case 3: The support in the Eco-system comes to facilitate exactly your need (imaginary motivation)
The drive to help you reach your goal exists. But in reality, may not be true
You are in a really luck! There is a community for every technology out there! Web Developers have a Web — Dev squad, App Developers have an App — Dev squad. Even blockchain aspirants can find their circle to discuss and learn together. This is perfect and everyone wins!
Except that you must be really really fortunate to be in such a place. In fact, this place might even be fictional!
Many a times, it is quite rare to find the community exactly that you look for. The expecting to find the motivation that you seek is very risky and naive because chances are you will be discouraged when results do not turn up.
Well, this realization seems quite anti-climatic. If the possibility of finding precisely the force I need is unlikely, what else could be better?
Case 4: You are the support you were looking for (self — motivation)
When you stop depending on the wind, you become your best teacher
This is by far the hardest motivation structure. Believing in oneself and staying accountable is quite challenging. This is the magic that productivity freaks seem to have a control on. The pursuit is clear and the drive is rigid as the person truly devoted to completing the task and find the result is with utmost sincerity.
This can be seen as the one who stops looking for communities around to help him and decides to be the change he wants to see. He searches online, sticks to a schedule and follows a rhythm. When one complains of not having a teacher to learn from, he is indirectly admitting that learning from other resources is challenging — and that is fine. But those who can put in the effort and stay with it long before giving up start to see ways to resolve it. Also in the age of internet, help is just a click away for the ones who seek it.
In time, when they become proficient in the pursuit and reach their goal, they become the wind for others following the same path later — and a new community is formed! It takes one to complete the journey to help the next, yet the one who does so solely by self motivation is more likely to be a powerful leader for the rest.
These are, according to me, the dynamics of motivation. A wind is required to get to your destination in life — sometimes it helps while sometimes it does not. Either way, expecting to find it always is the easy way out, for the real victors rely on themselves to carry their pursuit to their destination.
I hope these pictorial representations help you figure out how to take the motion forward to reach the island of treasures, and the subsequent change you bring to the world becomes the motivation that others seek.
In a sense, motivation needs a starting point, and it occurs usually from a singular individuals who is self — driven, and spreads the energy for the rest to gain from. Hope in time, we all learn to become this driving force.
