There was a weird point in my life when I felt I couldn't go without external motivation. I read a lot of books and listened to so many motivational talks from Les Brown, Eric Thomas, Tony Robbins, and the likes. I felt like I would switch up and commit suicide if I didn't listen to their words at least once a week.
I don't doubt that these motivational speeches are important. It's even worse now that there's Tiktok and everyone is basically a motivational speaker. Anyone can place a camera in front of them, speak a few words in a certain tone and have 100k people agree with them.
It's a sad reality we live in. Everyone just seems like they're getting it right, but in life, no one truly knows until they die. That's the irony and beauty of life.
My motivation
I have needs and my quest to satisfy my needs keeps me going. I wake up every day and I realise that if I don't take my current privileges seriously, I'll end up poor and helpless in a very short while.
In a country like Nigeria, you can get rug pulled at any point in time. You're one bad decision away from being dirt poor and homeless. While it's great to get motivation externally; emotional boost from friends and sometimes family, great books, motivational speakers and all that. In the absence of these things, all you have is yourself and these needs that must be met.
My daily motivation is my reality. I wake up every day and I tell myself "this can't be it for me". My situation isn't bad, but I know it can get worse at any point in time and I need to be ready.
There are days and weeks when I don't feel like doing anything. Times when I just want to live but other days, when reality sets in, when my father or mother falls ill or a relationship that seemed to be beneficial goes sour, I realise I have so much work to be done.
As much as we tell ourselves that we shouldn't bank on other humans, truth is, to achieve pretty much anything we want, we need other humans. It may not be the humans you know directly but a friend of a friend can change your life in ways you never imagine.
That's my motivation to keep doing whatever it is that I do. My motivation to keep learning new skills, to keep pushing and fighting the system no matter how much it tries to hold me down and draw me back.
In a system like ours, there's no other option but to fight. The only thing that's different is the kind of fight we have. The fight is always different but it's there.
