Motivation Has To Be Intrinsic – For What you Want To Be
It’s a topic more widely discussed. How do I get my motivation to be successful? Everyone wants to be successful. This means a lot of hard and smart work needs to be done and achieved to be recognized.
People do attend a lot of seminars and today in a digital world of videos it’s widely available and everyone has his or her version talking about it more widely. But what suits one is what matters the most. This I am stating because of the fact that each person is different and has different behavior and he may interpret as per his knowledge and upbringing, and most important being the willingness to change.
Today at this juncture, it’s more relevant to talk about linking the desire for success to motivation, as everyone wants to live a better life. This article largely talks about the working population or population that strives for a living.
But before we embark upon “Motivation” let’s broadly look at the Indian employment statistics as per the data available on the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
According to the website following are the details listed underneath.
As per the Census 2001, the Indian workforce is over 400 million strong, this constitutes 39.1 % of the total population of the country. The worker force comprises 312 million main workers and 88 million marginal workers (i.e., those who did not work for at least 183 days in the preceding 12 months to the census taking)
Main workers constitute 77.8 percent of the total workers. The remaining are marginal workers.
I am not getting into the numbers and data as that is not required for this topic. It will unnecessarily lead to the digression of the subject matter.
Why I have taken to the section of the working population?
The majority of us work somewhere for a living. We also do realize that we all work for our betterment i.e. growth and our family needs to be taken care of. We all will agree to it, isn’t it? I think a majority of us would say Yes, right?
There were two friends. I am trying to build a story in a similar fashion that we used to do in our childhood hood and the famous characters were Ram and Shyam. So, I am borrowing these two characters from my childhood.
Dialogue:
Ram: Do you know I need to work hard to retain my job and meet targets to be in the race of achievers?
Shyam: Ya, I agree. Hum sab is daurd men khap Jayenge ( We all will get consumed in this race)
Ram: Aisa kyun kehte ho yaar.
(Why are you saying this?) We all have our families to take care of and if we do not grow how will we take care of them in the future and survive in this world? We have to ensure their future, and take care of our aging elders.
It’s a dialogue that every middle-class population thinks about.
So, what do you understand about the above dialogue between Ram and Shyam?
If you are one of them you will understand how deep the meaning is what Shyam has said is. He seems subdued and burdened by the sheer thought of surviving and his future. He is not thinking about his growth. And we all have to go through this phase of our life sometime. The question is will he or will he not survive and grow? He needs the motivation to excel and be successful. We all want to be.
So,
Where does this motivation come from?
How this motivation drives me and why?
Does this motivation help me get the desired result?
Do I feel like doing this activity time and again?
The above dialogue between Rama and Shyam is the real depiction of our lives. Some may agree and some may not. It’s an individual understanding and their choice.
But the reality is… Hold your breath and try answering the questions below.
Do I get excited every morning to get up, get ready, and go jogging, for a walk, or an office? If not then Why?
I need not say, if you have answered the above question probably you would have gotten your answer.
Oh! no, I am not leaving this topic here.
Let’s understand by asking the same question in a different way, rather I would say with a different perspective.
It will be a brute reality.
a. You go for a walk in the morning because you want to get away from becoming fat.
b. You want to get to work because you want to get away from becoming broke.
c. You want to meet friends to get away from being lonely.
Have I said anything wrong? I do not think so. Above is the hard reality.
So what are these? What are they called? Do you want to know what this is?
The hard reality is that today people are motivated due to their desires and ambition and not because they feel happy doing it.
You may say I am wrong but all the above is bullshit. Keep your hand on your heart and you will realize that the above 3 points are the hard reality of life.
People who have gone through management courses know where I am leading you all too. i.e. the Gurus have already said this. The most known one is Maslow’s Theory.
Maslow’s Theory
Maslow defines the hierarchy of needs as motivation, in simple words we can be defined by a simple term called “WANTING”.
I could have drawn the picture of it and explained it in detail, but to make it fast forward I have avoided it.
Coming back to the story of Ram and Shyam.
What do you think?
Is Ram motivated?
Is Shyam motivated?
What is their state of mind?
If you recalibrate and look at the conversation between Ram and Shyam you will find that it is largely driven by your needs such as:
a. I go for walk in the morning so that I remain fit.
b. I go to the office so that I have to earn a good living and take care of my family.
c. You meet friends to share your feelings.
The above assumptions are true to our life.
What Maslow has said is true and that’s what we understand from the “Dialogue” between Shyam and Ram.
But does this lead you to self-satisfaction? Does this give you the wings of happiness?
So, what do I do?
How can I as an individual improve?
How do I make motivation intrinsic?
Some simple tips that you should practice in life.
Ask yourself questions that are uncomfortable to you.
List down your Happiness and Satisfaction quotient.
Against each quotient write down the actionable. We all want to give this a try but on the action part, we fail miserably. Why because we do not act on it and start giving excuses for not doing it. (It’s your subconscious mind) that we need to counter time and again.)
To counter your subconscious mind let us question ourselves.
The question that we need to ask is Will I? and Can I?
Simple questions. Isn’t it?
Now look at the two sentences with a difference, and you will find the energy. Did you find what difference these two questions can do to your life?
You just need to reverse them and you will get the answer. From pessimism, these questions just changed to optimism.
“Will I?” Reverse of it is “I Will”
“Can I?” Reverse of it is “I Can”.
It’s that simple as far as the swapping words go. It’s better said than done. Life is full of challenges and you can’t get motivated by just juggling the words.
To achieve what you want to be is to believe in yourself. The above two questions just represent building your belief system. But you need to repeat these every day and every time you come across moments where you are feeling low in your life.
Believe me, it’s simple but strong enough to work miracles for you. This small exercise will help you build your inner self and your motivation.
Summary:
One can define intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when you are motivated by personal satisfaction or enjoyment instead of external factors like rewards or punishment. We simply enjoy an activity or see it as an opportunity to explore, learn, and actualize our potential.
It’s immaterial how we define it for ourselves, whether we define it as a drive or a need.
If you recall there is mention of childhood, this has been purposely to make you realize that you were bindas (Carefree), not afraid of doing anything to be happy and do what you wanted, most of the time.
Motivation is a condition inside us or a desire inside us that wants to change either in ourselves or in the environment in and around us.
I would rather say we all need to work towards our self-well-being, love, and health, walking towards our purpose, reorienting towards our life’s vision, and taking action at a behavioral level for making motivation an intrinsic factor in driving towards more success.
To end I would say
“Get to your Happiness and to get your motivation” — Manish Sinha