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I remember one time, I was playing Osu! in one of the Team Liquid Osu! nights. Of course, I'm complete trash, but a couple of players there are usually pretty damn good. So I chose a map that I'm having difficulties on.
No one completed without failing.
But I remember very clearly, one of the better players (top 500 or something?) saying something that I will probably never forget.
good player: fuckk
other player: it's not you, that map is terrible. out of sync.
good player: it doesnt matter if it's out of sync. I should be good enough that it doesn't matter
I failed. But I failed because I failed. Not because the game or map was bad. But because I sucked.
I found that beautiful.
I don't know what to say if you watch it. Honestly. Everything he says is so obvious, but you don't really think about it. Success comes from effort. That's all.
A lot of people search endlessly for some complex, magical formula, to understand why some people are successful, and why others are not.
It really just boils down to this concept of productivity, which means that you're going to apply the most amount of effort, to the best of your ability, in the allotted time that you have.
And all successful people realize that time is the most precious commodity that's out there. It's the one thing that you can't buy or ever buy back. So these successful people realize that they have an alloted time to perform a given task, so that they have to give it their absolute all to doing that task.
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[You have to ask yourself] what are you going to do today, but more importantly, how are you going to do it?
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this is a good approach to game and life! Keep it up!
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That's not really motivation so much as it is 'hey isn't dedication admirable?' or 'wow doesn't this music stir something in you?'
Actual motivation, aka the force that makes you want to be dedicated and maintain that dedication comes from a variety of factors. Easiest way to divide them is into external factors and internal factors. These are the terms used by people who study motivation in an academic way. It's a good attitude to not to give up and to know that you have to work hard to achieve a difficult goal, but that is just one part of motivation. That is basically self-efficacy. "Do I have the ability to produce the desired effect?" or "Will I eventually if I work hard enough?" When the goal is something massive like I want million of people to watch me play football, most people start to have doubt. Add onto that other factors of motivation, such as is it possible? Do I have the resources? Do I have the opportunities? and you have the many brick walls people face when they make their goals too big.
So if you wanna ask where 'real motivation' comes from, I would argue that it comes from knowing your goal is possible, and knowing you'll be good at it with hard work. Maybe millions of people won't watch you, but you could get really good at football as long as you have the equipment and the friends to play with. If that doesn't seem too small a goal, too meaningless (other demotivating factors), then it's enough to become really skilled at something.
So that's my criticism of these Will Smith etc motivational speakers. It is easy to talk big, but after you've talked big and you have to spend hours and years perfecting your abilities, that romanticism and big talk won't last. You'll have to find an actual reason you are doing something. A montage is perfect at capturing our emotions, but it doesn't actually give you a sense of the amount of work it really took. If I could become Rocky Balboa in 15 minutes life would be pretty easy.
If you want a great example why just thinking if you work hard enough you'll be a super star etc is pretty dumb, then look at a million wannabe progamer blogs. SC2 isn't nearly as competitive (that is, there's not as many people trying to be professionals and it's not as attractive a profession) as many sports, yet you have to know that pretty much all these people have no hope because all they're thinking of is some dumb motivational video. 'I know what I want to do with my life! I am going to play 10 hours a day and get out of bronze and into progaming!' And then I imagine they realise that 10 hours a day of practice isn't really that fun when they still lose to silver players.
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^ so bitter about those delusional "going pro" blogs =P
That being said, I agree that motivation will only take you 'so far,' then you have to tackle on real challenges that impose pain, struggle, pressure, fatigue, and all other sorts of hardships on you. I was so motivated to gain a couple kilos (I was pretty scrawny) and pack some manly muscles this year. I accomplished my weight goal (gained 6kg) and most of it went to muscles (yes I love staring at myself after a shower), but every step of the way I had to dedicate the hours and effort of working out after long days at work + rush hour commute (it takes a lot out of you).
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No amount of effort is going to make you a tall black guy but.............
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On December 15 2011 01:19 OpticalShot wrote:
^ so bitter about those delusional "going pro" blogs =P
That being said, I agree that motivation will only take you 'so far,' then you have to tackle on real challenges that impose pain, struggle, pressure, fatigue, and all other sorts of hardships on you. I was so motivated to gain a couple kilos (I was pretty scrawny) and pack some manly muscles this year. I accomplished my weight goal (gained 6kg) and most of it went to muscles (yes I love staring at myself after a shower), but every step of the way I had to dedicate the hours and effort of working out after long days at work + rush hour commute (it takes a lot out of you).
Well sure, but allow me to list the actual motivational factors that might have been affecting you to illustrate what motivation is.
-It's possible. You have an able body and the time to lift weights. There was no doubt that if you lifted weights consistently you would eventually build muscle (as apposed to someone who might play StarCraft for years but never get out of D). That's a huge motivational factor because if you didn't think it was possible (time constraints or a misunderstanding of how muscles are gained) you wouldn't do it.
-You did not like being scrawny. This could be for a variety of factors and I hope you'll forgive me for making some guesses. Maybe you just think the ideal body has bigger muscles (influenced by media or by peers). Maybe you think that it will be easier to get girls to like you if you have bigger muscles. It doesn't sound like it, but maybe you legitimately just wanted to be able to lift heavier stuff, or you play a sport and you wanted more power for it. These are all factors which would give you a reason to go to the gym everyday. If you have no reason, you don't think your body would look better, you don't need to lift stuff, you don't think girls care, then you clearly wouldn't do it.
-You think it is healthier. (I don't know if you actually do). Maybe you feel you'll live longer or you'll breath better and have more energy throughout your day.
-You actually just enjoy lifting weights. Maybe you are like Arnold and feel like you are ejaculating from lifting weights, I don't know.
-You just needed to fill up time in your day. Sometimes we legitimately do things just because there is nothing else to do (I find this one unlikely for you and especially for lifting weights in general).
So those are motivational factors. I hope that illustrates really clearly that motivation is a mysterious force that some people get or that you suddenly have after listening to a pep talk (although that can help get you started), it's really a cold calculation of do you value this, is it possible, is it worth it.
So I'll take myself as the counter example. I feel I am pretty fit but you could probably call me scrawny too. I don't lift weights and have no motivation to. I feel that going on walks, planning tennis once in awhile, doing various fun, but not specifically geared to gain muscle activities are good enough for me. So I'll list the reasons I'm unmotivated to lift weights:
-I don't mind being 'scrawny.' I breath easy, I feel I'm pretty healthy. I think that the type of girl I want to attract is not one who is vain enough to need pointless muscles. I don't move things for a living, I don't have a reason to lift heavy things.
-It's too much time. 40 minutes of walking to the gym, an hour of working out. 4-6 times a week depending on the type of training... If I could lift heavier things with 15 minutes of work, that would be an ok trade. 100s of hours over the course of a year though, I feel are better spent perfecting my writing and working on other things.
-I don't really think it's healthier. I could be wrong, but I think regular physical activity, ordinary cardiovascular stuff, is good enough. It seems to me that in weight training one is actually more likely to get injuries and strains and put stress on their bones. I doubt it's significant and I haven't been motivated enough to do the research, but needless to say I am not convinced having bigger muscles will make me live longer or give me more energy.
-I feel that the ideal form is the one that suits my lifestyle. To me one gains the muscles they need from their regular activities. I think more than that is probably superfluous and I'm not planning on being super competitive in any sport. At the level I play at (in tennis etc), skill and hand-eye co-ordination are more important factors. And I only do those sports because I think they are fun, not because I care about fulfilling the prescribed role of males in society (else I would play team sports like hockey, which I hate).
So those are all demotivational factors (for lifting weights).
tl;dr: you do things because you want to do them, and depending on whether that desire can be maintained over a long period of time will determine if you can achieve long term goals. A motivational video is so short, the desire you get to do something from it is so short, that it is almost a negligible factor in determining your motivation. Which, I suppose, is pretty ironic. It's kind of that common pitfall of motivation. You get all the satisfaction of doing something before you've done it when you watch a video like that. You practically feel like you've just done it, only you haven't done shit.
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EPT
