Can Motivation Be Over The Top?
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Mar 26, 2014
I love listening to motivational recordings and I've been watching quite a few of them on YouTube lately. There are so many good ones out there, so many good speakers, that anyone who's looking for a boost of positivity and energy should think about looking them up.
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As much as I love motivation, I also tend to think that there are times when some of the advice is a bit over the top. As a for instance there's this sports related motivational video that tells people that there's no excuse not to give 100% to everything that you do. That part I like.
However, it goes on to say that until you're hurting everywhere, even if you injure yourself, until you feel close to dying, until you can't do one more pushup or pull up or push that weight even once more that you don't care enough and haven't given enough and that when others quit you need to continue because if you don't, then you're not really trying, you don't really want it enough.
Really? I don't think so. When I was a kid and I'd get hurt, my dad told me to rub dirt on it, walk it off, and get back in there. That's exactly what I did and you know what? I've reached my mid 50's and I have back issues and leg issues and my joints hurt and sometimes my hands hurt.
I can remember some of those times when I hurt myself and never went to a doctor or even took pain killers for it. I remember as a kid playing sports and coming home every evening and rubbing Ben gay or Absorbine Jr into my body trying to find some relief and not really finding any because that stuff doesn't work. But I never took any pain killers until I was in my 40's, and sometimes they don't work.
I've seen people get hurt by trying to do things that they shouldn't, both physically and mentally. To me, that's not motivation, that's incompetence.
Urging someone to follow their dreams, to give what they can, to work hard while taking care of themselves... that's motivation.
Giving praise where it's warranted and helping someone reach their dreams and goals, which may even help you... that's motivation.
Do I think there are times when you might need to push someone further than they may think they can go? Absolutely. But telling someone that it's better to die trying, no matter what it is... nope, can't support that.
But maybe I'm just too soft; how do you believe motivation should manifest itself?
Several years ago, I was working with a person that was trying to overpush motivation. He used to call it “buzzing”, well I have to admit that in the begining, things used to look all right and productivity of the rest of the team used to improve.
Though, I think that in most cases, he was overdoing it and nobody wanted to listen anything.
No doubt balance in everything is much better solution.
Absolutely Carl. I knew this woman years ago who was a Mary Kay regional manager, when my wife was thinking about selling the stuff. She was way over the top with her motivation, to the point where she was almost like a cartoon character. The thing is when she thought people weren’t selling enough, so that she could keep her pink car, she’d suddenly turn a bit mean and then have to start all over again because so many people would quit after her bad behavior towards them.
I think an ideal way to boost your motivation is to have a plan and clear goals, sticking to these as much as possible, and not giving up if, for whatever reason, we go off track.
But at the same time if you don’t feel like doing something just don’t do it, as it will do more harm than good.
I think that works for the most part Noel. Truthfully, not everyone has motivation, nor has goals for anything better than comfort.
Hi Mitch,
I always liked your writing and I now know why. Great points. When you get older you realize killing yourself in the process wasn’t the right thing to do. You could have gotten where you are and even further if you worked patiently and methodologically.
You need to keep your humility, humor and spare time for your family and friends as well. I always loved the phrase; “survived to fight another day”. It really is easy to burn out, feel left out and don’t enjoy your achievement even you make it because of the process it took.
Thanks for your kind words Jen. You’re right, killing oneself has never been the ultimate answer to success because you can’t enjoy it if it’s that much work. One does have to work hard but if it’s something one actually enjoys, then it doesn’t feel like work.