I put this together because of the perception that some persons have about the question of motivation or the idea of motivationals, especially the wrong perception that people have about men and women who earn their daily bread speaking to awaken the giant in others or to get them to awaken their innate and hidden treasures locked away within their frames.
Really, if motivating others is their purpose and if they are being that purpose, I do think that they are doing a great job at it, if through their words, their inspiration, experiences, and life, they are able to get others to find meaning and live fulfilled lives.
As I put these thoughts together, I had to check with my dictionary to be exact that I know what the word motivation actually means and not go with the flow of the crowd and the bandwagon effects of throng patronage. These are synonyms I came up with for the word motivation: catalyst, desire, impetus, encouragement, stimulus, spur and more.
The same lexicon states by definition that it is the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way. There is therefore a motive behind or for it. Thus, the listener is expected to have gumption enough to be able to apply himself or herself to the words that are uttered. In other words, like every other utterance, it is not just the utterance, it is the interpretation that you give it. It is how you respond to it, more than how you react.
The words may not amount to much if you do not know what to do with them. The use we put to the words we receive are the fulfillment of the purpose of those words.
The tool of the motivator or the motivational speaker is words. How many of us really understand the power, the potency and influence of words on things? How many actually do know for a surety beyond repeated sloganeering that the world as it stands today came to be through words?
If words are right, if words are true, if words are of good report and come from the place of great thinking, integrity and a compelling purpose laden with faith, I think they will achieve the purpose for which they are sent or spoken and they only need to activate something in those who hear them, should the hearers choose the path of activation.
If a man is gifted with inspiration and he skills this precious gift with the skills of oratory and applies himself to diligently serving others with it, he is justified before the one who gave him the gift, not by the ones who may have equally received gifts but are oblivious of what it is they have received and so have not found themselves but have become preoccupied with the affairs of those who have found themselves.
I do not speak about liars who use sophistry and who speak what they do not know. I do not speak of those who push others to bring down the roof while they themselves sit in the corner in the expectation of the worse to happen. No, I do not speak of such. I do not speak about men who lie from both sides of their mouth uttering deceitful things and goading the ignorant to go with their vibration. No! Rather, I speak of the sincere who are true to their discoveries and have diligently sacrificed their entire being and life to use same for the advancement of others in their environment.
The environment is a huge resource for everyone to explore. The environment is one great gift we can sow into and use its unseen potency to affect the seen and each one of us has the access because we are a part of the environment. Unless we come to the knowledge and apply same through development towards helping others to find meaning, we may not be relevant to our environment.
The knowledge space is limitless. Those who are able to use imagination, observation, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation and execution will often employ accurate knowledge to the benefits of others. Whether it is put into motion pictures/audio-visuals, written to be read, spoken to be heard, or however it is presented, knowledge is the vehicle and if it is the right knowledge spoken at the right place to the right persons, it will serve the purpose for which it was sent.
At some point in time or the other, each one of us must have motivated someone. Each one of us has used motivation: parents to their children and wards, mentors to their proteges and mentees, husbands to wives and vice-versa, friends to friends, random strangers to strangers, bosses to employees, and colleagues to colleagues.
Just as we have great motivators, we have demotivators who demotivate others with the same tool of their words and they do those things deliberately even in the same kinds of relationships mentioned above. Every coin has two sides.
Levels of Motivation
Let us explore two levels of motivation. They are the intrinsic and the extrinsic motivation. What do these mean?
The Intrinsic: Intrinsic motivation as the word states, is from the inside. That is the ability for a person to be able to take a hold of himself and push himself beyond the proddings of any external influences or cravings. The man or woman who is able to use intrinsic motivation is one who has been able to go into himself or herself to find a treasure, follow the vibrations and direct same towards the attainment of any chosen endeavour. This person is able to hold self together in the face of storms and does not need any external forces to push them. While money may be a reward for efforts invested, money is not the drive. As a matter of fact, a school of thought believes that outside this model, no other model is worth considering where enduring personal attainment is concerned.
The Extrinsic: Extrinsic motivation is from the external. It is the motivation that comes from what your eyes can see, as opposed to what the eye [the inner] can see through the gaining of insights. Extrinsic motivation is tied to something external. You are doing what you are doing because of what your eyes can see in the environment, not what your quotient can awaken from within you. You are extrinsically or externally driven by the things you see. While this is not bad in itself, the question of sustainability needs to be seriously addressed.
Words may be the vehicle. Money may be the tool. The search for rewards and promotion may be the igniting pull. For words, it is left to the hearer to use their inner processors to evaluate what they have heard. Without this, it will amount to no benefits. It is important to stress that with the extrinsic, value or benefit may not endure after the oil of motivation has dried up or has gone out.
When the money ceases from coming, will you still be driven? If the lot of the promotion falls on someone else who was only freely working towards the vision and purpose of the visionary, but was not doing it for the raise, would you still be motivated? If the words of the motivator cease to sound and no longer reverberate in you long after, would you stay motivated? If you did not stay awake and connect with your own essence and oasis, what happens? These are some of the issues with the extrinsic motivation.
Motivational Speaking
When we use exhortation and admonition, what are using? Are these not strands of motivation? Are they not outright or near synonymous with motivation? I profoundly appreciate great minds who motivate others for a living: Wayne Dyer, Leslie Brown, Jim Rohn, Tony Robbins, Chris Gardner and a host of others who actually did or still do a lot of work based on research, deep thinking, and the use of the creative and imaginative quotient going through much practice to deliver the punch in their talks or speeches.
For such men who have accomplished much for themselves in this area of human endeavour, it is because they have helped others grow because without others growing, it is impossible for them to grow. And this has got them into the more lofty areas of coaching. They have encountered life in different ways and used their failures as well as success to teach others. Their failures have become vehicles of strengths from which they play in their space. Their success has not done any less.
Coaching is the highest form of teaching and every truly accomplished coach goes into the level of mentorship. They mentor, support and help others through the path that they have been through or are familiar with. And some of them sincerely do this probono.
To mentor someone requires an agreement between the mentor and mentee or protégé for the mentee or protégé to commit to the process and sacrifice so that the tutelage can achieve its goal. It is not a walk in the park. Sacrifice is tough. Commitment is enervating. Pain is often involved and more losses are actually recorded than gain in some aspects. The gains make us forget the pains, which incidentally are part of the lessons of wisdom we earn during the character building process.
Motivation vs Inspiration: There is a contrast between motivation and inspiration. While motivation is about you taking a hold of an idea that appeals to you and using it for yourself through pursuits, inspiration is an idea that takes a hold of you and uses you as a vessel to accomplish its own purpose or agenda.
Therefore , it is possible for a motivational speaker to receive an idea which pushes him or her to direct nuggets of the message to hearers who may receive, process and put it to use. As I noted earlier, it depends on the gumption of the hearer to be able to use what he or she has heard. Resonance is the key vibration here.
If the words you hear resonate with you, you do have a cord struck and ignited in you. Where we have resonance we have more than something going as long as we are willing to go with the resonating force and pursue same for actualization. With resonance, something is awakened in us.
Like Simon Sinek said, not everyone may have a vision but you may align with the vision of another person and run with it because when you heard it, it resonated with you in an uncommon way. It awakened something in you. That is the inspiration of some other person. This is what it meant for Joshua and Caleb to hear Moses; for Timothy to hear Paul; for Peter and John to hear Jesus, and a mentorship relationship that has impacted the world for centuries began.
Motivation can work in the same way. Men can infuse their own ideas into others who listen to them and their listeners can follow them and get mentored from afar by their ideas and thoughts. The motivators are thought leaders in specific areas of human endeavour.
Between both therefore, the difference is that inspiration is a higher level than motivation. Inspiration is 'in spirit'. It is man walking in the way of what has been embedded in his spirit. But motivation is man walking the way of his physical prodding as opposed to the spiritual. With inspiration, if a man commits himself to the values of divine sacrifice and tutelage, his thoughts and that of divinity can align. Mind you, both of them are spiritual, because man is involved and man was first made a spirit before he received a body.
This was why Elijah could say it would not rain according to his words. This was why Moses could intercede with God not to destroy the Israelites in the wilderness. This was why Abraham could intercede for Lot. They had dwelt so much with inspiration that their motivation was inspiration itself.
We should be thankful for motivational speakers who are motivational speakers indeed and who make a living from it if they have honed their skills especially when they have incorporated teaching, coaching and mentorship to their craft to connect with and produce greatness in other humans. It is the gift of God. We can do better not to judge others from the place of limited experience or from environmental poisoning.
