I bet everybody is familiar with the story of Napoleon and mountain Alps. For those who haven’t heard it yet allow me to narrate it briefly and understand a bit better about self motivation. Napoleon Bonaparte, a great French military leader and an emperor, was going to war along with his soldiers and they needed to cross the Alps. There were stories about people crossing Alps were never found again and nobody has ever crossed it.
When the soldiers came to know about it they all were scared but Napoleon was confident on crossing Alps. When the soldiers tried to step back he asked whether anybody have seen Alps to which they replies as no. Napoleon said that you all come with me and when we reach Alps i will let you know and then you all can decide whether to cross it or not. All of them agreed.
Much later after traveling miles, soldiers started to enquire about a mountain that they saw and asked if it was Alps to which napoleons reply was no. When all of them have crossed that mountain they asked how far is Alps? Napoleon smiled and answered them saying you all already crossed the Alps. Fascinating! Right?
Sometimes what stops you from going forward is you yourself and nobody else. Sometimes what gets things done for you is you yourself and nobody else. This very sentence screams the power that ones mindset can hold.
What is the best kind of motivation?
People easily feel defeated after 2-3 tries whatever it may, even for a task as simple as going for a daily walk. When there is somebody to accompany you in walking you go happily with them for say 1 week or 1 month maybe that too if only they shower you with words like “come on , you can do this, only you can do this”. How long will it last? What happens to that motivation if that persons decides not to accompany you?
Self motivation is always the best kind of motivation. If you really want to get things done, if you really want to win something, pass an extremely difficult exam, climb Everest or have to win in life whatever it is you can always look into yourself. You will find what you have been trying to seek from others.
Self motivation and failures
Success teaches you nothing but failure does. Just think of a simple example. How does a baby learn to walk? Babies fall countless times but they don’t think oops! that was a failure and lay on the ground for the rest of their lives. Too young to know all these weighing down concepts, they get up try again, falls, gets up try again and fall but at last they walk, yes baby steps.
Failure is never a thing to cry your eyes out instead learnings happen when we fail. “A smooth sea has never made a skilled sailor.”
How to stay self motivated?
Staying self motivated isn’t an easy task. It takes a lot of inner strength. The inner strength to crush all those things that stand in your way to tear you down. The inner strength to not take everything you hear into your mind and body. Of course there will be people everywhere to talk bad about you, demotivate you, manipulate you, drag you down and even shatter you into pieces.
- Believe in yourself.
- Understand and accept from the very beginning that there will be failures for sure but never refuse to look into it and learn what it has taught you, where did i go wrong this time?
- Everybody is facing difficulties one way or the other but each day they are trying to overcome it. Not everything has to be displayed publicly.
- You are a work in progress. Nobody is perfect everybody is learning. Take baby steps there is no need to leap forward.
- When you feel everything is falling apart remember why you started and look back how far you have come.
- Practice gratitude– analyse the good things that happened in your life this will keep you positive.
- When you feel overwhelmed write down everything, go for a relaxing walk or any other activities.
- Visualize your dream, feel how you feel when it is achieved.
Success doesn’t happen overnight so is your dreams. You need to be patient, calm and learn from whatever has happened to you good or bad.
Written by Gayathri Gopinadh