(A scene from the film Il Grido by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1957)
There is an expanding motivation industry in the social media world preached, endorsed, represented, and sold by self-proclaimed gurus, motivation coaches, self-described experts in the field that promise self-transformation, fulfillment, success, and well-being. This monopoly of motivation consists of individuals of different backgrounds: athletes, billionaires, navy seals, gym instructors, celebrities, dieticians, religious leaders, social-media influencers, commentators, and so on. But the one thing they all share in common is the product they sell with evangelical fervor: motivation. They are distinguished by the sensational optimism of their language. We frequently hear from their mouths certain words and catchphrases: “greatness,” “success,” “positivity,” “winner,” “believe,” “stay hard,” “never give up,” “no excuses,” “your time is now,” “focus on yourself not on others,” “face your fears,” etc. These are the hackneyed bywords for motivation.
Their unquestionable success and influence in a way reflects the condition of our cherished civilized society—a society so desperately in need of motivation despite all the stuff and the dizzying amount of information out there. Why are we unmotivated? Why is there an overpowering sense of weariness to proceed in life? Why the stress, the depression, and the anxiety? These are questions which invite no easy answer and demand no trouble-free solutions. They are questions of life worth contemplating.
Motivation today has become a sought after product, endorsed like an energy drink or a magic pill that once imbibed a miraculous transformation in one’s life ensues. YouTube is filled with dramatic videos and moving speeches encouraging the viewers to achieve greatness in __ days, if you follow these steps, these methods, by focusing entirely on yourself. The problem and the danger with this program is the obsession with the false sense of self. An obsession that dismisses any other issues and considerations but the self. As though the self is the end of all ends, the everything, both the doctor and the patient, both the savior and the damned. Nothing is more pernicious and misguided than the notion of the centrality and the imagined superiority of the self. The motivation industry asserts that our failures, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness are solely our own making; that we have only ourselves to blame for our shortcomings; it is our fault if we are not great, if we are poor, if we are lonely, if we are bored, if we are homeless, if we are destitute. Thus we need to be motivated. I find this premise an astounding simplification of the matter; an unwise diagnosis of an immature perception of the problem.
The error lies in the insistence that each individual lives in his/her own precious little island, unconnected to organic networks that make this world a habitable place, with no responsibility apart from one’s immediate needs, with no further engagement but with one’s self. The motivation industry unwittingly wants us to believe that external factors—social, cultural, economic—matter less than the self-asserting I.
If we have been taught to seek motivation or meaning in stuff and information then we have failed miserably; and if by any rare chance we did find some meaning at all it is not long lasting and does not have a profound rootedness in the human soul. Meaning lies elsewhere.
By denying our inherent relationship with the wider world, by isolating ourselves in the cloak of motivation, we secure a ground for profound loneliness and alienation. The more we focus on ourselves the more the world suffers. The more we exclude our self from its organic commitments with nature (ecosystems, plants, animals) the farther we are from learning our true selves. In this case the whole motivation enterprise is part of the existential crisis. It poses as a solution when what it really does is simply allow individuals to cope and adjust in an unjust and oppressive system. Motivation can only carry us for as long as our tiny boats proceed smoothly and evenly. But when the storm comes and the boat capsizes, we realize that our life vests cannot hold for long and that we will have to need others, and perhaps miracles, too. We are learning this quite recently, and in a very tragic way.
Instead of divining motivation what we should seek for and work on is belonging. By belonging I mean a deep reacquaintance with the world. This asks of us something more of participatory rather than the isolated cultivation of greatness which the motivation doctrine preaches. Perhaps our diminishing ability to proceed a more meaningful and purposeful life is due to the fact of our failing relations not just with people but more importantly with nature. We have come to believe that knowing ourselves requires a superficial separation with nature. We have adopted an attitude which expresses a false reverence of nature—as though nature is simply a complimentary satisfaction of tourism and the discoveries and adventures it provides are subservient to our individual enlightenment. Nothing is more degrading and stupid than this touristic, amusing discovery-channel-type of outlook on nature.
Our withering intimacies and wavering connections are a consequence of our lack of ancestral appreciation, of our unlearnedness of indigenous cultures, of our illiterateness of nature. Motivation has no worth if it fails to bring us closer to a sense of belonging. To be motivated without acknowledging that our troubles are solely not our own but part of the crisis of the wider community that we live in is an extremely narrow mode of being. And nothing is more motivating than the feeling that we belong, that we are participants in a project bigger than ourselves, a project which involves the company of our ancestors, the animals, the trees, the plants. You and me.