What Keeps You Motivated?

[electroBeam]

What gives you a drive to keep moving forward?

- Money is just an artificial perception, and always will be. You'll never touch the essence of money in awareness, it will always be a pot at the end of a rainbow.

- Likewise with good grades. Its just a perception, floating around in the background of your head, without any substance to it.

- Hot girls are also just a hollow thought. You'll never touch, and bask in the essence of that feeling you get when seeing a hot girl, because its a hollow thought, without substance

Everything is just a hollow, empty, murky pot at the end of a rainbow. Nothing has substance really, the future is just an illusion, 'getting somewhere' is just imagination playing out from a yet, deeper illusion. 

 

What is there to truly do? What isn't a pot at the end of the rainbow? What keeps you on track towards obtaining some hollow, empty goal? What drives you?

[Prabhaker]

4 minutes ago, electroBeam said:

What keeps you on track towards obtaining some hollow, empty goal?

Hope !

The hope is there like the horizon waiting ahead. It says, ”Up to now life has been suffering, but that has not to be the case for ever. Tomorrow things will be better. With this woman you are suffering; with another woman things will be better. With this job you are not happy; with another job you will be happy. With this rotten car you are feeling miserable, but there are beautiful cars; you can have a better one. With this much money, of course, how can one be happy? But money can be earned.

Hope functions like a buffer. The shocks of life are absorbed by hope, and one goes on living and waiting for the tomorrow. And the tomorrow never comes. And whatsoever comes is never that which you had been hoping for. 

[electroBeam]

@Prabhaker so what keeps you motivated?

[wavydude]

Sometimes I remember my happiest moments and tell myself thats nothing compared to what life can be like.

[Prabhaker]

Just now, electroBeam said:

so what keeps you motivated?

Nothing, I don't do anything, I only eat, relax and sleep.

[Huz]

Man this is a great place to be.

You realise that all the material goals are hollow. Now you won't be a rat your whole life and chase after them, until you are dead. This is when your inauthentic motivations disappear. Your authentic motivations will come about. You will see that you will stop forcing yourself to work. As, you truly would want to do that "work" more then anything else in the world.

This state is more loving then inauthentic motivations. Because from these authenticies you will be doing the things you actually love to do in the present moment. Not expecting or caring about a reward in the future. You will not be harsh with yourself  for not meeting a target, because there is no target. 

Man it's scary. Most of my life I see that my motivations are inauthentic. I do it for social status, because I cared what people thought about me, to please my family, to fit in, to fulfill my mind's desires. All this crap is like a fog. Preventing you from seeing what your heart wants to do in the moment. I find it sad that I sacrificed love for myself, in order to fulfill other people's/my conditioning's expectations of me. 

 

Edited May 17, 2017 by Huz

[egoeimai]

56 minutes ago, electroBeam said:

. Nothing has substance really, the future is just an illusion, 'getting somewhere' is just imagination playing out from a yet, deeper illusion. 

True. These are all illusions but...

56 minutes ago, electroBeam said:

What is there to truly do? What isn't a pot at the end of the rainbow? What keeps you on track towards obtaining some hollow, empty goal? What drives you?

Do you like the following? "You are a creator and you came here to create in physical dimension.Just to create. To live" Do u like this idea?

[Loreena]

52 minutes ago, Prabhaker said:

Nothing, I don't do anything, I only eat, relax and sleep.

[Prabhaker]

@Loreena In that total relaxation, existence opens its secrets.

[eputkonen]

@electroBeam, motivation and drive are something the ego wants.  That is what is needed for work - things you don't want to do.  Ask a child "what is your motivation or drive to play?"...and you will have a very confused child.  Or you might get the reply...because it is fun.  But what is play...but fun.  So it is having fun for the sake of having fun.  This is play...no motivation needed.

Life can be like this too.  You can do it just for the fun of it.  You might think it would be fun to be a doctor (children play doctor and you can play doctor for real).  But to play doctor in a hospital, you have to go to school...you have to get good grades...and so there is the pre-qualifying game of school that must be passed in order to play doctor in a hospital.  And so you have fun in school, doing the "school work", because that is part of the game.  This would be playing at becoming a doctor...as a pre-qualifier to playing a doctor in a hospital.

Like all games...you sometimes lose.  And so, while playing to becoming a doctor...you may run out of money and not be able to finish school..and thus not be able to play at being a doctor.  That is OK...now play the game of finding financing for school or you could find an entirely new game to play.  You can do whatever you want in this life.

But do not put conditions on your happiness or enjoyment on only winning.  The game - win or lose - is just for fun.  It is not about future seeking...but present seeking.

As for me, I am playing a mid-aged man who plays at being the husband to a wife and plays at being a father to a daughter.  I play the game of corporate recruiting (playing as a recruiter) during the day...which funds (not unlike playing monopoly, life, cash flow, etc.) my house, cars, vacations, etc.  I play at playing the drums at kirtans or drum jams whenever I see them available.  I play poker in the bar league most Thursdays.  I play at being a blog writer about nonduality and awakening.  And more.  I am having a blast and am enjoying myself immensely.  Why do I do it?  Because it's fun.

Edited May 17, 2017 by eputkonen

[egoeimai]

16 minutes ago, eputkonen said:

@electroBeam, motivation and drive are something the ego wants.  That is what is needed for work - things you don't want to do.  Ask a child "what is your motivation or drive to play?"...and you will have a very confused child.  Or you might get the reply...because it is fun.  But what is play...but fun.  So it is having fun for the sake of having fun.  This is play...no motivation needed.

Life can be like this too.  You can do it just for the fun of it.  You might think it would be fun to be a doctor (children play doctor and you can play doctor for real).  But to play doctor in a hospital, you have to go to school...you have to get good grades...and so there is the pre-qualifying game of school that must be passed in order to play doctor in a hospital.  And so you have fun in school, doing the "school work", because that is part of the game.  This would be playing at becoming a doctor...as a pre-qualifier to playing a doctor in a hospital.

Like all games...you sometimes lose.  And so, while playing to becoming a doctor...you may run out of money and not be able to finish school..and thus not be able to play at being a doctor.  That is OK...now play the game of finding financing for school or you could find an entirely new game to play.  You can do whatever you want in this life.

But do not put conditions on your happiness or enjoyment on only winning.  The game - win or lose - is just for fun.

As for me, I am playing a mid-aged man who plays at being the husband to a wife and plays at being a father to a daughter.  I play the game of corporate recruiting (playing as a recruiter) during the day...which funds (not unlike playing monopoly, life, cash flow, etc.) my house, cars, vacations, etc.  I play at playing the drums at kirtans or drum jams whenever I see them available.  I play poker in the bar league most Thursdays.  I play at being a blog writer about nonduality and awakening.  And more.  I am having a blast and am enjoying myself immensely.  Why do I do it?  Because it's fun.

Your life seems awesome. I want to enjoy life as well (again)! I hope this is soon!  I dont think I enjoy as  I w anted

Edited May 17, 2017 by egoeimai

[Vaishnavi]

Learning what life is, who I am and what world is, who we are and what is the gist of it all keeps me motivated. I don't know if it is pursuing the "truth" but it is powerful. Maybe this too is another "pot" or something that exists in future but for me life is happening all the time and I want to know the why and how. Also being a part of 'life' and experiencing and appreciating all its colours is something which keeps me motivated. 

However an embarrassing motivation in the form of fear of ending up 'normal' is sometimes good enough to get me out of bed. 

[Guest Annetta]

I'm not sure, to be honest.

[cetus]

The age old question "what am I?"

[Shin]

Try to get a samadhi experience after long hours of meditation.

You can't really go back after that

Quote

What is there to truly do? What isn't a pot at the end of the rainbow? What keeps you on track towards obtaining some hollow, empty goal? What drives you?

@electroBeam

Peace, bliss, love.

You don't need a goal to have/give that to people you meet/know.
You'll most likely have a goal if you start to tap on that though.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Shin

[Salaam]

Connection, closeness, passion, meaning, fun, pleasure, success, love, care, investment, the expression and application of all that I've built, discovery, potential, the next horizon, curiosity, wonder, mystery, novelty, responsibility, adaptation, resistance, humanity...

What is the action behind the word motivation? To me it is the spooling of a force inside us, pulling or pushing a person towards involvement.

I don't focus on hollow, empty things. Instead I've got a diversity of deep, universal energies I can involve myself with in so many facets of life.

It's amazing really.

[Steph1988]

@electroBeam 

6 hours ago, electroBeam said:

Everything is just a hollow, empty, murky pot at the end of a rainbow. Nothing has substance really, the future is just an illusion, 'getting somewhere' is just imagination playing out from a yet, deeper illusion. 

You know this might be just a phase that will pass this metaphysical thinking is going way to far i think (i agree on the grades tho).

Yes reject society's ideals , shit on social norms and conformity but there have to be things you are interested in beside pondering "truth'' all the time the ideal might be just doing what u like doing maybe that's all that ever matters.

Make it easier on yourself decide on a goal and then try to achieve it don't ponder the deeper meaning for now just move forward and while doing it you will feel much better that is something i had to learn myself the hard way.

to answer the question what moves me forward for example.

- i worked hard to buy a house working 2 jobs but it was easy mentally because i had a goal in mind and what u said about money was not true for me because with making that money real concrete stuff happened in the world namely having a new house and renovating it will be a challenge as well but it will feel meaningful. 

- i like to learn to play progressively harder songs on the guitar and achieving mastery on it is a long term goal for me why? because i have a great time doing it very simple.

- busy reading books on different subjects recently finished one on the second world war why? because it is interesting to me and the next subject i'm interested in for example is the fall of the roman empire which i look forward to learn more about.

- writing here is just something i like doing once in a while because i would like to read and explore topics that go beyond shopping and football but i just like doing it for its own sake.

Lots of stuff more but these are just some examples they have no deeper meaning then i have described because i guess i don't care about it, i don't care that within a billion years everything is gone and nothing has any meaning anymore these things mean something to me because they simply do it took me some time to realize this but it is very freeing.

There has to be stuff you want to do in your life and you need no exact explanation of why u feel drawn to it u just are and that's enough for now.

The future being an illusion needs some nuances maybe i thought Alan Watts said something like the future only counts if u are able to live now and living now is doing stuff and enjoy them for their own sake. So that shines some new light on it, the future is very concrete, if u decide now to start train seriously for a marathon 3-4 days a week within a year( the future ) u will run one and the process will be tough but very worthwhile.

This is my view on it good luck hope it helps.

 

 

[Steph1988]

@electroBeam oh@eputkonen beat me to it i'm saying the same thing but now u got more people saying it.

 

[Nahm]

I much prefer connection and inspiration which are their own reward and the more of those I have, the more creatively I express.  Also, they are self cyclical, which is nice.    

[Scholar]

For me, my main motivation to do anything is suffering.

 

Why did I write this post:

I wanted to write a post so I could do the whole "Why I write this post" thing again. I don't even really care about why I am motivated, I just use this thread as an excuse to post. At this point even the very thing I tried to implement to humble the ego with, is used by the ego itself. It hides being it. I shouldn't even say it, because it is me. I hide behind it. I hide behind the fact that I am analysing an ego, even though it's me, the person talking. I still feel like I need to prove myself, and I feel proud that Leo upvoted my last post. It motivated me to write this post, as a way to prove that I am really going to do this now. It seems like my ego is just growing even though I wanted to do the exact opposite. I feel ashamed for writing this, but at the same time proud that I can do that. It seems like I am distancing myself from the mask "Scholar", and thus enable to be honest, which I shouldn't. I think for this to really be effective, I would have to reveal my identity, but I am way too scared to do that.

I just edited this post because I care about how others will recieve this post. I see a certain humor in how ridicilous all of this is.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Scholar