Learn Motivation from Terrorists

(Published in Banking Services Chronicle March 2003)

Most of us are encouraged by our well-wishers to do something great. They encourage us because they love us. They think they are doing us the greatest service possible. No doubt, their service is great. A word of encouragement boosts our sagging spirits. Often, the last lap of a race is the most difficult. And it is the spirit of encouragement alone that sustains us in these troubled times.

But encouragement can at best make you an ideal worker. And that is why though our encouragers render us a great service, it falls short of being dubbed as “the greatest”. This epithet has to be reserved for that supreme idea that makes civilisation spin around. MOTIVATION. Yes, that’s what I have in mind.

If you want to be a leader, and not a mere worker, motivation is what you need. The greatest service one can therefore render is to motivate. Most of the times, however, this comes in the form of self-service. The history of civilisation is witness to the fact that from time to time there have emerged individuals with an idea, with an obsession, with a vision and redefined the contours of the society. Overcoming all odds, they have chronicled themselves as geniuses in the annals of history.

What is motivation? It is the reason for somebody’s action. While encouragement helps you reach a goal, motivation makes you set the goal itself. Most of us are brought up on the staple diet of how to get a good job. Well-fed on this diet, we work highly efficiently on the machines we already have. But seldom do we think: why this machine? Why not change the machine itself? It is motivation that makes us realise the limitations of the existing paradigm. And then we consider making a paradigm shift. Once this is done, lo and behold! The results are simply incredible.

The results of a task give the best yield only when you have a reason to get into it. When the reason exists, there is happiness in every move that you make in inching towards your goal. It is like getting up in the morning. If something special is expected to happen on a day, you leave your bed enthusiastically. Otherwise, it is a drab and dreary affair. A duty that has to be performed without inner conviction.

Take the example of fanatics and terrorists. What makes them the most efficient community in the world? It is their obsession with a motive. They cling to an idea. They will live and die for this very idea. They believe “The Idea is Truth, Truth the Idea; That is all ye know on this Earth; And all ye need know.” Suicide bombers care little for their lives because the Idea motivates them so strongly that life is reduced to a trifle in comparison.

This is not to say that fanaticism is a good thing. Or that terrorism is worth emulating. Far from it. Reason: the idea itself is a wrong one; it is based on perverted thinking. But what is worth emulating is their spirit. Or, to move towards a noble cause, the spirit of our freedom fighters. They laughed their way to the gallows because the spirit of India had infused their blood.

Now, this never-say-die spirit comes only when we believe in what we are doing. And we believe in what we are doing only when we have chosen it because we know why we are doing it.

It is never too late to start. This day give a thought to your purpose in life. If you think a day is not sufficient, give another day. But do not leave it for the morrow. Start thinking now. Once you have your goal set in this way, most of the deterrents will disappear. And if there are a few hurdles left, you will love to overcome them.