Hello friends, how are you doing? Are you really enjoying the podcasts? Thank you for giving all your comments. Thank you for your suggestions, and I really appreciate that you’re benefited by some of these talks. Thank you.
Today’s food for thought is Motivation. What is motivation? Motivation is an energy flow which helps us to do a thing with enthusiasm. Am I right? It’s basically enthusiasm to carry out an activity.
Where does it come from? Where does it originate? It’s a very big question. Many times, we expect motivation to happen from outside, but I always believe that motivation happens from inside; that is sustained motivation. When motivation happens from outside, it’s temporary; sometimes motivation, de-motivation they keep overlapping. We have seen so many people; when they expect outside motivation, they become totally paralyzed when they don’t get it.
I’ll tell you a couple of examples which I had. I was working as a sales executive in a shipping company, and it was their annual day. So, the manager, the boss, called all of us juniors, and said, “You know what, we are having our annual day, and our mother company and we are joining hands and having a celebration. So, I want you all to do some performance, or do some activity from our side, from our division.” So, we asked him, “What’s the budget?” He said, “Do you really want to know?” We said yes. “Nothing, no budget, the whole budget is utilized by the parent company, so we don’t have any.” We came back to our rooms and we were talking amongst each other. We said, “What can we do? We have no money, how do we get this done?” We all were pretty dejected, so we went back home, and back to our rooms. We were all bachelors, we were in our 20s, early 20s; went back to our room and then we were thinking what to do, separately, of course. Next morning, we all assembled, and we discussed, what can we do. Everybody said nothing. I said, “Okay, let me try something. We will sing a song, there is an orchestra already, so we will make a song, or we perform something on stage, also we will make a drama, a one-act play, or two-act play.” Then they asked who will write it? I said, “I’ll write it.” I had not thought about it much. I did not know what to do. We had about three weeks, so I said, “Okay, that’s good enough.” And that’s the time when the computer just started, there was software called WordStar, I think, and we could type on it and we could edit and stuff like that. It was not like we’re writing them down; so it was easier. And I was thinking, what music we will do. While I was in the car, suddenly, this music was playing – ‘Give peace a chance’ by John Lennon. Then I realized (it was the time when the Gulf War was happening), that this is the most relevant song. I decided to modify it to add all the people in our company; our boss, everybody put together, to get the effect of the time; like George Bush and all those people involved in the war, Saddam Hussein and people. Then, I completely changed the lyrics and then we practised together, the group, the youngsters, the sales team. The boss didn’t know anything about it, we were doing it elsewhere. I also wrote a script, a drama. That was all about various aspects of our organization in a very funny way. For example, communication goes, then we are all in dark; the customer is asking us, “When do you think my cargo will reach the destination?” So, we’re telling that “I’ll check the horoscope and tell you.” Something like that, you know, just like a funny situation because we don’t have communication, because of the war situation, things like that. It was a two-act play. I directed, I played the main role, and the others joined me etc. Since I wrote it, it was easier for me to remember the dialogues. Then we performed on stage, despite the parent company having the entire money budget and all the different things, costumes, etc. We got the best applause, and we got the best participant award. And everybody said, “How did you do it?” Then I said, “If there is a will, we can do anything. I’ve never done this before, but we can do it.”
See, when you really have to do it, you should be self-motivated and against all odds, you can perform. Why I explained this story right now is because when we say, “Oh, this is COVID situation, everything is restricted” or “We don’t have mobility. Things are not right.” etc.; always remember, you are the same, you can really do it.
This is the time when things are in adverse when the climate is adverse; that’s a time when you really can be motivated. Also, it’s self-motivation, which nobody can give you nor can anybody take from you. This is a very, very powerful thing which you can think about; there are so many other things I can talk about on motivation. But motivation is something which you can cultivate; it can be a habit, it can be an attitude. If you are motivated from inside, from within, nobody can stop you, because you will not care about the environment. After all, you are motivated. That motivation will inspire a lot of people. Today, this is what I see.
People look at me for inspiration, and I have to always be inspired, means I have to give inspiration. Sometimes situations are adverse, and climate is not right, the environment is also not right. In COVID situation, especially when the economic meltdown is happening, a psychological meltdown is happening, people are not happy. There is a lot of anger, a lot of remorse, a lot of confusion. Also, there is a lot of suffering. At this time, if you can motivate yourself to motivate the world, you will be respected.
With this thought on your plate, I leave you. Digest it as best as you can. Please tell us what you feel, how you feel. Also, please try to make a difference in your life and the life of others by your own motivation.
Wish you success. This is Mohanji. All the best.
Transcribed by Ulla Bernholdt
Proofread by Rekha Murali
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