You know that feeling, right? When you feel like you can do what you’re planning, and become blind to all your doubts and probabilities of failures.
You begin to feel like you’re infallible. Nothing can drag you down. And even if something can, you won’t let it get you.
That’s how motivation works.
It induces positivity in you and excites the optimist in you. It ignites a spark within you which makes you think “Yes, I’m good enough. I can do it.”
The best thing about motivation is that it makes you hopeful and can even rescue you from utter despair. When you take up the journey to following your dreams, motivation matters even more, because it’s always hard to go on when you feel cold.
There has to be that enthusiasm within you to actually succeed. That magical feeling – the warmth – whatever it is. You need to have it in you.
But here’s what most people get wrong
It feels great.
That’s all I can say about motivation.
Dreaming passionately, planning the future and imagining the best that is yet to come – ah! It’s more than great. It’s elating.
In fact, it makes you think that you’re unstoppable, which you are, somewhat. As long as you can keep yourself motivated, you can keep on fighting against the odds no matter how arduous your struggles get.
However, the simplest truth is – motivation is useless.
Don’t get me wrong. Motivation is necessary. I know. Yet, motivation too, just like other things in life, needs to be there for a purpose. If it cannot serve a purpose in your life, then its presence is a pointless thing.
A simple incident
It was a usual midnight. I was reading an article on Viperchill. While I reached the last paragraph of the article, the words had already done their work.
Darn.
Glen, that guy, had written something so powerful that it made me want to work harder. I could relate myself to whatever he had penned down. However, I glanced at the clock in my laptop – I don’t remember exactly but it showed 12:15 A.M – time to sleep.
“Anyway. I’ll write something tomorrow. Not today.” I convinced myself to sleep. “It’s rare that people work in the midnight. Especially when they get nothing out of it. So, maybe I should sleep,” I thought.
But the truth is, I couldn’t sleep. I struggled with myself deciding whether I should write or not for the next few minutes, until I finally opened the editor and started hitting the keyboard.
I kept writing until I felt like I had done my job. The time was now 1:15 A.M. The document showed 500+ words in it. I had done my work. I slept peacefully that day.
The moral? I’m hoping that you might have grasped something from it. Read the following few paragraphs. It has nothing to do with me but the role of motivation in your life and how it can make you better.
The relation between motivation and work
Everyone is playing their part each day in this world. We’re all similar.
Yet, there’s something I’ve realized about the fine string that connects both motivation and work. I took me too long to realize it.
I used to be just another guy who procrastinated, pushed aside the work, delayed important tasks and did other stuff which is considered to be normal. That’s ordinary. Usually, we all are used to doing those things.
But when you’re a dreamer and striving for a change, you can’t afford to be ordinary. Which means, that sometimes you might need to wreck your lifestyle and abandon the mindset which you’ve got used to.
It may take time and make you uncomfortable, but it pays off. Also, if you shun efforts then you might not always get the fruits you expect.
I’m glad that I realized this, even if slight later than I should have.
When you stop being honest to your work, you get the outcomes which might disappoint you. You might feel like a failure.
It’s apparent.
Nevertheless, as the success of your dreams is dependent on your work, you might feel painful about not having behaved responsibly earlier.
Deep inside our hearts, we all know that we only get what we work for. So when we aren’t giving what we need to, it isn’t hard for us to figure out what’s coming.
The sooner you realize the role of motivation in your life, the better you get at whatever you do. The work you do is directly affected by how motivated you are, however there’s something else you need to know.
A simple thing I’ve learned about motivation
Motivation works similarly for all people.
You might read a quote of some poor-turned-billionaire and think that you too can be like him. Or you might get excited by some small successes which come on your way and begin to think that you’re on your way to becoming the big deal you want to be.
I too used to be such. I rocked my head at the beat of Eminem’s songs like Not Afraid and Lose Yourself. I read inspirational stories and fantasied about how I too could become as phenomenal as the ones I read about. Those post-movie effects affected me as well.
I still do these things – but something has changed now. Something which I didn’t notice until I became much more sincere towards my work, which makes all the difference.
To be honest, here’s something I don’t usually tell people – I feel awful about myself when I don’t write. I begin to see myself as a coward and a loser. It doesn’t matter much whether anyone’s reading my words or not, but until I get the words out of my soul, I remain restless. It becomes hard for me to engage myself in other activities until I complete what I’m supposed to do.
If this goes on for too long, I lose the respect I have for myself because I know that I’m shunning my duty. I find myself guilty.
However, guilt doesn’t push me towards despair but rather works like a guideline – it tells me that I need to be more dedicated to my work.
Though, it’s not same story now. I’ve moved beyond those habits. They affected me once. Now they don’t – because I do all that I can as per my abilities and find more ways to get things done.
I work harder than I used to. A lot harder. And as long as I stay honest to my responsibility, nothing affects me much.
I’ve gone through a transformation, either knowingly or unknowingly. I’ve stepped out of that stage where I used to hold myself back due to my insecurities or slothful working habits.
Everyone goes through the same. The motivation which touches you each day ends up changing you. It brings out the best in you if you let it.
Yet, what goes unnoticed is that it can only bring a change to you when you use. Otherwise, it can have no effect on you.
So the question which likely arises is how can you use motivation for your own good?
The only purpose of motivation in life
To get you to work.
Period.
Anyone can be motivated. You just have to sit in front of your computer while munching potato chips and watch some TED Talks, or see the video of Steve Jobs speaking at Stanford. But does that make you perform miracles? Not until you start acting.
The presence of motivation in life is to ensure that you keep moving forward. Anyhow. It’s to keep you working when times get hard, when you become hopeless or when you come to a standstill.
Sometimes its sole purpose is to teach you something new so that you can implement whatever you learn for your own welfare, yet, in the end it all boils down to just one thing – are you actually working?
[ctt template=”3″ link=”29cUZ” via=”yes” ]What motivates you, asks you to act. @vishalostwal9[/ctt]
All that motivates you shows you how capable you are and opens up new paths for you by clearing your blurry thoughts.
Still, there’s no point in being motivated when you’re not doing your work. Most of the time, motivation is all that happens in your head.
Only you can feel it, no one else does. Do you think you’ll succeed because you’re motivated? You might as well be lying to yourself if you say so.
How to use motivation for your own good
By harnessing it.
Harness the potential of motivation the moment it strikes you, even if that means doing something really small or performing an insignificant task.
If you’re an entrepreneur and get an idea you might want to adapt in your business, then jot it down somewhere and take you first step towards using it.
If you’re a painter who gets inspired by the art created by another artist then paint immediately. Stroke the canvas with your brush. That matters a lot.
If you’re an ordinary person trying to develop himself then act on whatever motivates you. Do the work you do, but in a better manner. It’s as noble as any other deed.
The first step towards letting motivation change your life is to use it whenever you can so that you can do more and improve your work.
These tiny deeds save your belief that you’re doing well. They induce a change in you each time you do something. As you go on doing it, you unlearn some habits and acquire the ones which can improve you.
Soon, everything that you do unifies with you and becomes an inseparable part of yours. Ultimately, your motivates ends up changing you.
Something that matters more than motivation
Does motivation affect you success? Yes, it does.
Staying motivated can change the thoughts which make you think of your work as drudgery. Motivation can make you much more content with your day job. Above everything, it can make you happier.
But motivation isn’t everything.
In fact, sometimes it’s overrated. Motivation can do nothing more than making circumstances easier for you to deal with.
In other words, regardless of how motivated you are, you still have to walk on the weary road you choose. Your path to success doesn’t get any shorter.
To be clear, in the end what matters isn’t how motivated you are, but how willing you are towards working and making efforts.
Your creativity, talents, smarts and all other qualities matter – but only if your put them to some good use. If you aren’t using them for any worthy purpose, then there’s no use of having them.
For instance, several people might have thought about the idea of flying vehicles, but it were the Wright brothers those who decided to work hard and actually created the airplane.
In 1975, many folks might have been watching the same boxing match held between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner, but it was Sylvester Stallone who turned it into a movie script and made Rocky.
When the ideas that you get and motivate you aren’t utilized, they perish. It happens in the same way to everyone else.
If you feel motivated, work to get the best outcomes from what you do.
Remember this truth about ideas and motivation
Ideas are cheap. They don’t count. Not until they’re carried out.
It doesn’t matter how gifted or motivated you are, because finally it’s all about how much you did with what you could do with your abilities.
The people who aren’t motivated, feel insecure and yet manage to go on in spite of the odds might succeed even when their chances aren’t great, but those who have all that it takes to thrive, are confident and yet don’t use what they have, might not achieve what they want to.
It’s a simple rule.
The world works like this.
If you’re working hard and executing your plans, then you have less things to worry about. But if you aren’t, then maybe you should grind harder than you do because successes always demand efforts.
Conclusion
The only purpose of motivation in life is to keep you hopeful and help you go on in spite of all the odds which stand against you.
Your motivation is there to make you work harder and inspire you to act for making your dreams true.
However, if you don’t act any sooner, then no matter how motivated you are, you might still be kept from achieving you want.
Over to you,
What do you think is the role of motivation in life? Like, why is it necessary or how does it affect your work?
Got any ideas to share? I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below.