Friday, August 01, 2008

The Motivation Factor

What do you do when you start getting disillusioned about life and the goals you had crafted for yourself? How do you tackle this situation when the primary motivating factor in life stops delivering its rejuvenating sap in your day-to-day little happenings?

I have been struggling enough of late, primarily due to de-motivation. Not because my PhD is not going great, in fact, it is very good I guess (so do several other people think); but it has been something else. I guess, on one hand it is the emotional turmoil which has created a mess, and on the other, it is the constancy of a research career, a degree you are pursuing which is crunching a fat slice of the ripe time of your life, along with ripping thick flesh of your efforts everyday. I don't mind indulging into an ambitious endeavor as that, but sometime, it has to reflect to me in some manner, why I am doing all this; why I have let go several nice things when I made the choices; and why I am in a position today when I feel I don't have anything to look forward to tomorrow.

This is not a depressing blog; I am not moaning over the melancholic life, nor am I re-iterating the bad experiences of the past. It is a piece of writing which should enable me re-think; re-think why I chose the path I did, three years back or may be even more. What the goals in the long run are. How is it going to make the lives of others different tomorrow. And when I run these questions in my mind, it feels like I am back on my track: the much larger than life picture I need to paint, eventually!

Life has its ups and downs. There are days when everything looks so perfect; and then there are times when nothing seems right. This truth is so cliched, but hardly ever we realize it when it is the most necessary. We brood over the past. We curse what has happened and what went wrong. It is difficult to forget certain happenings or people; difficult to put apart certain things which you could have worked out but did not really happen. But life is about looking forward, living each day full to the brim. Because what is past will never come back. It is just there. While, the motivations, they help us move forward in life. So the wise is who can weigh the motivations over past worries. He or she is then the winner, the winner of life at its best!

I would like to conclude by saying:
"There is just one life for each of us: our own." - Euripides.

PS: Please pray (if you are a theist) or wish (if you are an atheist) that my aunt who is ailing with cancer in its secondary stage, gets fine. I just got to know about this tonight and haven't been feeling great all the more. She has been a wonderful person in my life and I hope life doesn't take its toll on her this way.


10 comments:

Uday Kumar said...

you eat loads and loads of biryani... and also treat others to it... and then when your stomach and heart fills seeing others happily devouring a delicious chicken leg... you start counting the sheep... I am sure you would feel a liiiitttttllllee bit more motivated...

Munmun said...

@ Uday
Sure, I loveeeee cooking !

Prashanth said...

There r several occasions in life when u feel less passionate... But great to see someone muse bout it... instead of just running d mad mundane race... actually stop by nd think... nd yea... sure enough what u said is right... we often tend to see d smaller picture, nd miss d bigger one... former might look more imposing, nd something that we need to address... but few wud realize otherwise... Great read overall... small suggestion... Try nd enlarge on y u actually r happy looking @ d larger picture... nd sure... wud make it complete... :)

alok said...

Well said - "So the wise is who can weigh the motivations over past worries. He or she is then the winner, the winner of life at its best!"

I have been through these kinds of ups and downs many times and learned many things on my way, and I am sure everyone of us here have something or other to add to their own journey.

Whatever it may be! I believe in the one thing that every decision taken in this life either made us stronger than before or weaker there after but that's never stops us moving. We always the spirit within us fight to live until the last moment and motivations just works as magic.

Munmun said...

@ Alok
Thanks for elaborating more the role of motivations in life!

Anonymous said...

thank you for this very lovely thought provoking post.

Munmun said...

@ swb
Thanks for your comment and glad that you liked it!

Madhuri said...

I would certainly for your aunt. I am neither too religious nor an atheist, but I always believ that somebody above us is taking care of all our needs and wishes. He'll listen to ours too. :)

Don't worry and cheer..

Madhuri said...

the important word was missing above. And that is 'Pray'.
I'll pray for your aunt.

Munmun said...

@ Madhuri
Thanks :) I appreciate this...