I met a fan of mine who was impressed by some of the work I did and was inspired by me to become a programmer as well, like me, he was passionate about technology and wanted more than anything else to become a programmer and create amazing things. From the very unset I have always been passionate about technology because of the power it gives us to explore our creativity, anything we can imagine, we can literally create it without even mentioning all the solutions it provides for our daily problems. This young man was the same as me, he could see the potential of technology and wanted to be an integral part of it as well, that’s exactly the emotion he desperately tried to convey to me with hopes that I could provide him the mentorship he needed to get to that point. I was impressed by his passion and determination but unfortunately, a couple of weeks down the line, I was disappointed to notice that his determination didn’t transform into action and he had completely abandoned his desire.
There could be many reasons to this; maybe he was just burdened by all the responsibilities he had to handle, or he did give it a try and realized how difficult it was, or he could have just discovered something better but he didn’t have the courage to tell me, especially following all the bold claims he had made to me earlier. This story is not just specific to programming, a similar situation happened with another person, this time with content creation, he appreciated my YouTube channel and all the work I was doing there and even though he was full of ideas, determination, inspiration and drive, he still couldn’t bring himself to action. It doesn’t take anything aside from an internet connection to start a content creation endeavor and yet, despite all the benefits, most people won’t! making one excuse after the other.
I could also observe the same trend in other areas, like when a person appreciates successful people or celebrities, you envy all what they have and yet you are not willing to go through all the toil and suffering they had to go through to get there. Despite all your motivation and determination, when it comes down to doing the work which needs to be done to get there, you give up. There are definitely legitimate reasons to these and also a lot of excuses, and that’s what I want to talk about here.
Lack of Motivation
When we are left by ourselves to think and work out solutions to the different issues we face, we tend to put motivation as a determinant factor to our productivity, that is to say that we allow our motivation to determine how productive we are, if you are not motivated you work less and when you are very motivated you work more. This shouldn’t be the case, motivation isn’t required in all areas of our lives, we can do without being motivated and it could actually prove very useful to dissociate motivation from certain activities. When you have responsibilities like children or serious problems, it doesn’t matter whether you are motivated or not, you just know you have to do the work to resolve them. Coming back to the example of these youngsters, they felt like they needed to be motivated in order to do what I was doing, that’s why when they ran out of motivation they abandoned all together, seeing me was motivation to them but that didn’t last through all the difficult moments.
I am not trying to say motivation isn’t important, it’s actually very important but its role in our lives shouldn’t be determinant to the extent of preventing us from doing certain things. To me motivation is more like a catalyst but it doesn’t have to prevent me from doing the things I want or need to do.
You have to be clear with yourself about the things you want to spend your time on and once you make that determination, motivation or not you have to do so because it’s the right thing to do. There are many things I would want to do personally, maybe become an astronaut, tourist or 5 star chef, but those won’t make sense for me so I focus my energy on what is much more reasonable.
All there is to it
Your passion or desire shouldn’t cloud your vision of reality, we both live in dreams and the real world so in everything you desire, you have to find the right balance. Left to my dreams, I would already have everything I could imagine, but because I also live in reality, all those things take time. In a dream everything you envision appears instantly but in reality, it takes much more than just imagination, this is to say that whether its your passion, desire or wish, there are physical actions you need to take in order to make them happen, you have to be well aware of that. Whether you are trying to be an athlete, businessman or whatever the case might be, its not just enough for you to envision all that, you have to also seek to know what it takes to be that.
In the case of being a content creator it involves a lot of time investment and reflection to come up with amazing ideas on a daily basis, in the case of being a programmer it entails consistent long hours in front of a screen and away from friends. Motivation won’t get you through all what it takes but there is definitely something else which might and that’s called purpose.
Purpose
The answer you are looking for is one which lets you not work hard, for things to just happen instantly, for you to get everything you desire just by imagining it but unfortunately that’s no the way reality works. it’s easy to say “you will do it” but often times we make that statement without realizing what we have to do in the first place. You say you will become the best in the world, but can you even be? Even though wishing and believing in yourself are a great part of what it takes, it they are not the only part and definitely not the only determinant factors.
There is a lot of hard work which goes into all this and you have to start by being well aware of that, if it doesn’t scare you then you are ready for the next phase. Don’t look for motivation, it doesn’t matter, when something is worth doing then you won’t need any motivation to do it.
In the same way that you don’t need motivation to eat or drink water, you have to make your desire something you need not be motivated to do. The other word is purpose and when you have that, you don’t need any motivation, when you are in difficulties and you want to get out, you get the purpose to do so, when you love someone and want to protect that person, you get the purpose to do so, you don’t put your life at risk because you are motivated, but many persons with a deep sense of purpose gave their lives up to defend their ideals. Turn your desire into purpose.
Conclusion
In dreams, everything happens as you imagine it, in reality, everything happens as you work for it. You can do anything you want as long as you are ready to put in the work required.
