Motivation for Thinking People

We often think of motivation as being a powerful feeling of being able to do anything, of rushing forward on the crest of a wave to a glorious future. This is not true. Motivation takes many forms, and one form of motivation can get you where you want to go just as well as another.

To many people the word “motivation” describes an extreme feeling, often of joy and power. Energetic music is playing, with fireworks going off in the background while they stand on the bows of a ship with the cool sea wind in their hair.

calm motivationIn many ways, it’s a view of motivation put across by the advertising industry. We see commercials showing people filled with energy, enthusiasm and drive, doing active sports and all that stuff—usually with that music and those fireworks going off—after taking the latest vitamin supplement. You take it, and you’ll feel like that too… and be able to do anything.

It’s also an idea of motivation that’s prevalent among certain “motivational speakers”. Go to a hysterical motivational rally—um, I mean enlightening motivational seminar—and you’ll find the same sort of stuff. Before the speaker appears there will usually be some kind of music to set a tone of excitement and expectation, sometimes coupled with images on a screen that deepen the feeling of expectation or set a light humorous tone as juxtaposition to the music. When the speaker comes on there will usually be an exhortation for the crowd to shout stuff, after which will come a quick-fire presentation to keep the adrenalin flowing, ending with more shouting of abstract words like “success” and “freedom”. The total effect is one of intoxication.
Because the words denote abstract concepts they mean different things to different people, and so are essentially meaningless. But when people are shouting and “motivated” this kind of reasoning goes out the window. All that matters is that it feels good—and that the product gets bought at the end.

There’s nothing wrong with using these techniques, but you have to make sure that they’re being used ethically, that the messages put forward through these mediums are making people’s lives better. You also have to be aware that his type of motivation is the one often used by tub-thumping religious zealots and extreme politicians, and accordingly one to be handled with care and used sparingly. For a good example of how it can be used in an unethical way watch any footage of the Nuremberg rallies…

Extreme—and very suspect—politics and religious bigotry aside, this type of motivation never really worked for me, largely because I need to have some kind of reasoned argument laid out before me in order to decide whether a process or an approach works. I think it’s the same for many people who like to think about things. There’s a suspicion—usually which bears out to be true—that shouting abstract concepts doesn’t make for real motivation.

Whenever I witnessed these types of motivational techniques in action I feel uneasy in some way. I look around at the enraptured faces and I can’t help but think: “These people aren’t thinking straight.” Thoughtful people know that these feelings may be fine for a football game or a political rally (even if the end result is less than desirable), but they just don’t cut it as a type of motivation suitable for our daily life. This is largely because the feelings engendered by this type of “motivation” are not consistent with reality.

Unreal feelings

There’s a great book called Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Written by Englishman Charles Mackay, it examines times in history when large numbers of people have been gripped by a delusion and lost all power to take an objective view of a situation. Among the delusions examined is The South Sea Bubble, one of the first stock market bubbles, which saw thousands of people invest the equivalent of millions of dollars in today’s currency in companies which in many cases didn’t even exist. What is surprising is the truth of the saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. The book was written back in 1841, and the South Sea Bubble occurred in the early part of the 18th century. But fast forward a couple hundred years or so from the book’s publication and the world saw the same thing happen during the tech bubble of the 1990s, when thousands of investors pumped money into companies which, although they actually existed, weren’t in many cases making a dime in profits. Reality didn’t matter; only the feelings did.

A similar thing occurs when people are “motivated” by the “motivational techniques”. They go to a seminar and experience great feelings. Great though these feelings are, they are actually less to do with motivation and more to do with excitement or, in extreme cases, even hysteria. The trouble with excitement and strong passion is that these feelings are naturally ephemeral. Everyone goes through highs and lows, and especially strong feelings tend to not last too long. Then when we no longer have these feelings we can feel less motivated than we did before we had them. Many of us have had the experience of feeling “highly-motivated” at some time, only to find that the “motivation” dries up within a day or so, leaving us feeling flat and tired—in other words, unmotivated.

In the long term this is actually detrimental to our motivation, because when the feelings disappear we can feel actually worse than before we had them, and our motivation takes a nosedive. We then seek out those great feelings of excitement again, and when we can’t find them we tell ourselves that we aren’t motivated.

The limits of excitement

Is there a way round this problem? Is there a way of being motivated without giving ourselves up to ephemeral excitement and the hysterical type of motivation? There is.

Once we realize that excitement cannot last, that strong emotions soon burn themselves out, we can look at a different definition of motivation. We can look at other feelings that enable us to get things done, but which don’t have connotations of extreme passion. Many times we find ourselves getting things done without feelings of excitement, but yet take a great deal of [tag-tec]satisfaction[/tag] in doing them. Just because we don’t feel extreme passion or excitement doesn’t mean in the slightest that we don’t have any motivation. It may just mean that the motivation we have is a different type of motivation.

One of my main motivational feelings is that of peace and quiet. When I write I feel a sense of peace that I don’t get at many other times. It has nothing to do with excitement or extreme passion. It’s more to do with a feeling of meditative calm. I never imagine myself doing cartwheels across the room to get to my laptop. It’s always a quiet walk. Rah-rah and loudness doesn’t work for me. To be honest, if I waited until I got a feeling of rah-rah walking-on-air feeling before I sat down to write, I’d probably hardly write anything. In fact, I probably wouldn’t get much at all done, and definitely not washing the dishes…

A different definition of motivation

In order to find the motivation we need, we have to move away from the view of motivation as presented by the world of advertising and the rah-rah of some motivational speakers. We need to look at motivation that is right for us.

There’s always something we can use, and the type of motivation that really works for us is one which dovetails with our values. Our values are the things important to us, and they vary from person-to-person so greatly that expecting a particular type of motivation to work for everyone is like expecting everyone to like the same type of food.

If we think about our values, we may find that they include, as mine do, things like peace, tranquility, and calm. If our values do include these things, we can stop worrying when we find that the rah-rah motivation doesn’t work for us—or even gives us a headache.

It can take a while to find your values, especially when you haven’t thought about it before. The reason many people don’t feel motivated is simply because they don’t know what they want. You also have to be aware that your values will change over time—and this is perfectly acceptable and right that they do. What’s important this year may not be important next year, or in five years’ time. But we still need to ask ourselves what we want now, and be honest with ourselves.

We need to ask the simple question: “What works for me?”

When you know your values, you can cultivate an environment that works with your values and not against them. And when you are in an environment that resonates with your values, you’ll find that motivation comes as a natural consequence. Just don’t expect it to be the hi-energy-doing-somersaults type of motivation. It may well be. But the chances are that it won’t.

Despite motivation often being presented as hi-energy and passion, it very rarely is that for everyone—or even anyone. Often the motivation is something quieter and deeper. And moving away from the red-hot passion type of motivation can help you put motivation within much easier reach. And it will be the type of motivation that endures and has real value for you.

Try to think about what’s your “motivational feeling”. What type of feelings make you feel good? Then try to arrange your environment to engender these feelings. You may find that your motivation is already there, but was just looking for the right place to show itself. Just don’t expect a fanfare and fireworks. At least not immediately… :-)