The Hidden, Unspoken Truth.

Most of the questions I get asked about qi gong or martial arts are actually questions that boil down to, “How can I be more successful in doing XYZ?”  The expected answer is usually a technique or special training drill.  That’s a good expectation.  There are small modifications in technique or a training drill that can often be introduced into a personal training routine that can dramatically improve it.  The real answer, for the vast majority of people, is to learn how to become motivated.  No matter what you know in your head, if you haven’t learned to be motivated, all you have is material for a book.

Motivation is Simple

Simple definition: Enthusiastic repetition.  That’s motivation.  Anything difficult is going to require repeated attempts to develop skill or reach success.  Now, let’s be honest, we’ve all made repeated attempts at something, but didn’t commit desire and enthusiasm to those attempts.  As a result, the task was hateful, and you had to struggle against yourself to complete it.  It also wasn’t done very well.  Enthusiasm is the determining factor as to whether or not those reps mean anything.  The resources of the body and the heart have to be rallied and directed.  On the flip side, if you have enthusiasm without repetition, what do you have?  A fan.  Put on your cap, get liquored up.  Games on!  

Are you waiting for the magic wand?

Put on your pointy wizard hat and wave around that stick around.  “Rizzma Sel Um!”  Bing! You’re motivated, Harry Cotter!

Motivation comes ultimately from the choice to be motivated.  It doesn’t come from the outside.  It is a behavior that has to be willfully engaged.  Meaning you have to choose to be enthusiastic.  It is not a magic that comes from something else.  You don’t get motivated because something is your hidden heart’s desire.  That’s the almost universal language of lazy, unsuccessful people.  You find your heart’s desire because you’re motivated!

I, and any Water Mountain trained instructor, can open up a person’s ability to be motivated.  I can refine it.  I can build it.  Just like I can refine a strike with a weapon, a posture of healing, or a blow of the fist.  However, I can’t make the person actually do any of those things.  That is only in your power!

How do you learn weakness?

Weakness comes from your society and family.  We would like to think that motivation is encouraged by our social institutions.  That the school system wants you to be motivated.  That the workplace wants you to be motivated.  That the health and fitness system wants you to be motivated.  It’s also nice to think that family and friends are motivators.

They don’t want it and they’re not.

Let’s start off with childhood.  Let’s say I, as a fictional parent, give my offspring a task that he doesn’t want to do.  The child does it, but grudgingly.  He moves like a snail.  He barely makes any effort.  He complains non-stop.  Pretty soon, I don’t want to supervise him, because it’s a drag on me and because the presence of a negative, de-motivated person, regardless of him being my son, makes the task hard for me to complete.  So, I let him do something else that he wants to do.  It’s harmless isn’t it?  He’s just a kid!

He’s a kid that has gotten a reward for a lack of enthusiasm.  He has learned that a negative attitude will release him from repetition.  He will, in time, use this to address other more serious problems, quite ineffectively and reaping unhappiness.

Every single one of us has done this, even as adults, because we know it works.  We use it to beg off of events.  We use it to get work loads shifted.  Every single time, we give a way part of our strength.

Social institutions don’t correct this behavior, because motivated people are initially feared.  They’re feared because they’re the people that end up being leaders, if they stay motivated long enough.  You see, people want to be motivated.  And motivated people are motivating!  They’re nice to be around.  Their enthusiasm is infectious.  So people are drawn to and want to be lead by motivated people.  That threatens the status quo of negativity, and it can also threaten people that are currently in charge.

The Reward

You become a performer, able to achieve goals that bring you personal happiness.  The doors to martial arts and qi gong open wide to you.  You become a leader rather than a follower.  The life of the party is always the person that is motivated to be there, and that person draws the adoration and support of others.

Getting out of the cycle of de-motivation is not easy and often requires the intrusion of a coach, someone from the outside, who can objectively put you back on the motivated path, and fire up the motivational coals.  It, of course, also requires not rewarding de-motivating behavior.