The Lack of Motivation is the Root of all Stuntedness
I did not think I would be writing on this topic until I started and finished
Motivation drives consistency — which drives the increased efficiency of achieving results. But motivation is not the easiest thing to pinpoint and is lacking in our lives when we experience stuntedness. We usually mistake a lack of motivation to mean we are lazy, unwilling, incapable, and unable. But that’s mostly far from the truth.
It is assumed that when we put in the effort toward a goal, we may achieve it. A lack of motivation cripples that first stage of attempting. It is a mental muscle that gets weakened either progressively or abruptly depending on some background life happenings.
It is true life is not easy or the rosiest to live. It comes with its ebbs and flows; most times ebbs and flows for some people and vice-versa. However, it’s pertinent to remember that such is life, and it happens for us than to us. But how would we know if we aren’t willing to test those waters? This is where the zeal to keep living comes from. You have to make a choice, not necessarily a decision, to choose life.
Once you choose to keep living, it renews your hope each day. This means that no matter how strenuous life’s been for you, each day draws new hope for you.
In the same light, motivation needs to be obtained internally, before it manifests externally. You need to make up your mind first not to give up on whatever you were planning to do. Be it your career aspirations, family or love life, friendship, or other pursuits. When you make up your mind, it knows. Then you’re drawn to people or places or even things that would motivate you.
Recently, I noticed this very strange behavior in me. I’ve had my fair share of struggles in life, lacking the total independence and freedom I’ve sought for a very long while now. As such I felt trapped and entangled in a vicious routine cycle. Even though it wasn’t an unhealthy cycle, I still found it draining repeating the same thing or patterns almost inevitably if you like.
This was because I had already given up on life. I gave up on my ability to forge ahead devoid of what my current results or (lack of) achievements may look like. I lacked motivation, yet continued to live or would I say exist.
What awakened my awareness of this truth was when I was called “lazy” by someone who could never use such words on me — as I’m usually the go-getter.
I knew it was time to re-determine my complacency and its root cause. Of course, I figured I was or am not lazy, but simply unmotivated to do the things I used to or love to or would do. I gave up!
This is what the lack of motivation would do to you. It would slowly drain joy and life out of your life, you’d lack the confidence to do better, and the strength to push against it; otherwise known as learned helplessness.
Learned helplessness is a psychological rut where you presume the worst out of a situation or an experience due to the sum of your negative past experiences.
Learned helplessness is a killer of motivation; inaction too.
Learned helplessness cripples the mind disallowing it to want to make healthier choices. Through psychological approaches like practicing self-awareness, being present in the moment, and therapy this “disease” can be controlled. After which you’d be freer to make a healthier choice without being so attached to the outcome. You’d also implore resilience as a counter-approach to learned helplessness leveraging your past ugly experiences to become and do better instead.
Inaction, on the other hand, leaves you drained with mental notes, thoughts, and mental pictures with no materialization. Thus, occupying the special part of your brain which ought to be boosting your motivation for action.
Motivation is needed for a lot of things during this period. The economy is getting poorer with a rise in the cost of everything almost every day. Bad governance triggers anxiety leaving the citizens restless as to what abounds should their relative bad news compound. The impoverished are hopeless, the rich are wary, and the middle class is struggling to maintain their balance. This is surely the right time to cultivate the motivation to keep keeping on. Not minding the look of things for now, but enduring and hoping it doesn’t carry on for too long.
Action is another great counter-force to motivation. You must have to act to gain the motivation to keep going. This is where action leads to motivation antithetical to motivation yielding actionable plans. Therefore when you make plans and stick with them, you’ll gain the motivation you need to carry on, hopefully, achieving your desired results. I did not think I would be writing on this topic until I started and finished.
But you must arrest the mind first and the negation it breeds to want to keep you stunted due to one reason or another, and then you’re ready to make it.
Thanks for taking the time to read
