Dalya Tabari | Co-founder & CEO of The Developing Child Center TDCC
I most certainly am not a scientist but after 42 years of life I am most certainly convinced that motivation is very much genetic.
You must know at least one person who seems to always be filled with energy and on the go, and at least one other who takes life at a slower pace, and perhaps even walks slowly!
I definitely know both types! And I’ve reached a stage in my life where I’m striving to find a (personal) happy medium between the fast and the slow! Motivated people can actually be annoying at times as can people who are (shall we say) ‘less motivated’; less antagonistic than using the word ‘lazy’.
Which begs the question: is it fair to say that people who are less motivated are in actual fact lazy? This is what I really want to consider.
I have asked many friends this very question and the automatic, off-the-cuff response is a resounding ‘yes’! Really? Unmotivated people are lazy? I’m not so sure. I am not convinced!
In our age of vanities and speed, perhaps we live in a society that is so demanding we have created an unrealistic perception of how we should behave and of how life should be lived.
Let’s look at the facts. Our lives are dictated by what is expected of us:
A good parent: raises his | her children a certain way, is always there for them, says and does the right things, is active at parent teacher associations and within the school, is energetic, fun, disciplined, great at supporting their children, exposes them to cultural activities, shapes and guides their life so they can excel and succeed.
A successful adult also has a job, makes money, is happy, athletic, fit and firm, eats right, knows how to have fun when they’re out, is serious and successful at work, gets up early and supports their friends, their parents, their families.
And then of course we have the incredible super human who combines both roles. WOW! I am exhausted just thinking and writing about these expectations and societal evolved beliefs.
And through all of this we are meant to be motivated; to jump out of bed, seize the day, seize the moment. These unrealistic and often judgmental expectations and perceptions are created by our society’s collective belief.
But what if I were to take a step to the right and look at this from a completely difference perspective?
What if an unmotivated person is not in actual fact ‘lazy’, but is simply someone who takes time to process things and allow events and circumstances and the process of thinking to unravel before making any moves? What if the so called lazy person chooses to be authentic to their own self and to conduct and control the pace of their own existence?
Ironically, it turns out that none of us are right.
We have in actual fact abused and distorted the meaning of motivation.
As per Webster’s dictionary, motivation is: “the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something”
And since everything we do in life has meaning, even if it’s sitting on the sofa watching television, we are all born with motivation. Every existence has purpose.
That is right, we are all motivated to do something. No matter who we are and what skill set we have, there is nothing in this life or world that does not have motivation.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is that motivation is just another word we (as a collective society) use to discriminate against certain types of people, people who don’t fit in with the ridiculously high expectations of who we are supposed to be.
And since I will spend the rest of my life advocating for peoples’ differences, I choose to believe that we are, each and every single one of us, motivated!
Some people are motivated to ‘exist’ and others are motivated to produce. I for one will not judge that difference.
Instead I will embrace it. Because there can be no brilliance in life without differences!
Celebrate the difference. Be Brilliant! Be motivated by the moment. Your moment at your pace. Now that, to me, sounds motivational indeed!
Dalya