Self Motivation: How do I keep myself motivated while striving for a goal?

Dear Friend,

Do you know what is motive? 

Motive:
- A motive implies a desire. 
- A motive implies a target. 
- All motives are outside of you.
- Hence all motives are kind of greed. 

To be motivated means to have a desire to attain something outside of you. 

• - That is my motive.
• - That is my target.
• - That is what I want.
• - That is what I want to attain.
• - That is my motive.

 Usually we talk of two kinds of motivations. 

Let us look at both of them.

1. One is external motivation which we usually kind of not like
2. The other is self-motivation that you are asking for.

1. External motivation

What is this external motivation? 

• You see external motivation is when somebody comes to you, speaks to you, fills your mind with his thoughts, gives a goal to you and you feel like going towards that goal.
• But you forget that those thoughts and that goal has been given to you by somebody else. The thoughts appear powerful now, the goal appears tempting now but the power and temptation will stay only as long as that person is there.
• When the motivator goes away, the motivation also goes away.
• You would have seen that happen. Somebody comes and fills you up with energy and you feel this is it. ‘Yes! Now I can move mountains but the next day back to your slowly self. Because it was every external; it was just a borrowed thing that was coming from outside and hence went back. It was not yours at all.

This is the first kind of motivation.

2. Self-motivation

The second kind of motivation is when you say that it is ‘my motivation’ and which you are calling as self-motivation. 

What is self-motivation? 
Let us understand with an example: 

So you go to the highway, you look at a particular hoarding and what do you see? A new mobile phone has entered the market. You already have a decent phone but you look at that advertisement and at first when you look at it, the advertisement hardly has any effect upon you. You say, ‘I already have a mobile. It is just six months old. I don’t need a new one.’ But the advertiser is clever; quite cunning. He repeats that advertisement; he bombards your mind with the advertisements in newspaper, T.V., internet. And you also see that new model in hands of a few of your friends. And one month later you find yourself saying that I want this mobile. This is what you call a self-motivation.

‘I am motivated to buy this mobile.’ And if somebody will stop you and say that no, you don’t need this mobile, you don’t want this mobile, you will say, ‘No, I am motivated to buy this mobile.’ 

That mobile can be replaced by anything else. 

• That can be replaced by career path.
• That can be replaced by anything tangible.

You completely forget that it is not at all your motivation. You forget that you have been influenced to go towards it by forces that are not visible to you. You will never know who is the advertiser. You will never know the man who is earning profits from the sale of that mobile. You will never know that man. But still you are being influenced. Not only are you being influenced, you are also being deceived to think that it is your own motivation which it is not. It is not your motive. Your mind has been filled with somebody else’s motives. It is just borrowed stuff that you are mistakenly calling as your own. And it is all the more dangerous.

• When the influence upon the mind is gross then you can at least easily recognize it. Then you can say that I don’t want to be influenced or motivated by somebody else.
• But when the influence is hidden, subtle, deceptive then you fall into this trap of self-motivation. There is nothing called self-motivation.

All motivation is external. 

It is just that the external has two forms; explicit and implicit, hidden and open, covert and overt. 

So first of all let’s just junk that word motivation because all motivation is just an influence upon the mind tempting you towards something external. 

Problem encountered:

Well then you are faced with the problem. 

The problem is that motivation has been your engine so far. Motivation is from where all your energy rises. When you feel motivated then you feel energized to do something. 

Now you will ask that if you are not motivated from where will our energy come. 

Far more powerful than motivation is another engine, truly internal engine
You require motivation only when you forget the real keys to yourself, to your own engine, your internal engine. 

What is that internal engine? 
That internal engine is of understanding; that is your own innate powerful engine. 

• You do not need motivation, you just need to understand.
• You do not need any external push or pull; you need the source of energy that supplies power and direction from within.
• And you have it already, but you have forgotten the key.
• You have been made to believe that the key does not exist, that unless you are shown the way, you cannot move.
• No, you don’t need to be shown the way. No pied-piper needs to come and queue you towards a fancy designation.
• You are the finest car that can be made. No improvement is possible upon you.

Discover your own key and then you would not need to be motivated.

Remember wherever there is motivation; there would always be the accompanying threat of de-motivation. Only a de-motivated man asks for motivation. Otherwise there is no need to be motivated. 

Such a fine creation you are. Why do you require motivation? And you are adults; capable, intelligent and beautiful. Why do you require that external push? It is demeaning; it is a kind of humiliation.

Turn your sight inwards. 

• Stop looking at the world, stop hunting for the things on the outside.

• Bow your head down as one bows down, surrender and look at your heart. You will find the key there.

The key is there. You need not worry. 

The difficult part for you would be to stop looking outside. 

• Because you have been deeply trained to keep looking outside, deeply trained, it will require courage on your part to say, ‘No’.
• ‘What do I want to do? I wouldn’t ask anybody. I will look inside.
• What I want to say? I wouldn’t go by social norms. I will look inside.
• Where do I want to be? I will not follow conventions. I will look inside.
• Who am I? What is my real identity? I will not borrow it from here and there. I will look inside.’

This looking inside is very simple.

The difficult part for you, I am repeating, the difficult part for you would be to gather the courage to not to look outside, because you have now cultivated an artificial kind of helplessness; an artificial dependency. You need not be dependent, but you have assumed that you need to be dependent. It’s a very cultivated helplessness. So don’t ask about the key. The key is there; safe and secure. 

You can never lose the key. Ask about the direction of your sight. 

• Till the time you follow the comfort of being dependent, you will never get the key.

• Till the time you take the easy route of tradition, you will never get the key.

• Till the time you feel that your definitions and identities can come from here and there, you will never get the key.

Have faith in yourself, you will find the key there. That is the key.

For deeper understanding and clarity, you may read more and connect on my blog 'Words into Silence'...