It’s
2014 and we’re being egged on and motivated to do more, more than ever before,
without asking for it. But a surplus of motivational talk may just be leaving
us cold.
It’s been discussed ad nauseam; we live in
an age of relative information overload, and we can’t really escape it. Whereas
searching for information just over a decade and a half ago involved scouring
through a thesaurus or book of some sort and absorbing information at a somewhat
digestible rate, today we are slapped with a sea of material on arbitrary and fascinating
topics alike.
The very same goes for the advice and
encouragement we receive from friends, family and complete strangers, often
indirectly. In the past, we were more often encouraged and motivated
face-to-face, once we had reached an emotional zone comfortable enough to share
a problem. This would then elicit some kind of a motivational response from
whomever we had chosen to confide in.
But today, we are confronted with a never-ending
stream of quotes, articles and self-help blurbs without asking for them – and
in fact without even necessarily needing them. This has produced – from my
viewpoint, at least – a rather unpleasant emotional response. You see, the
kneejerk reaction to a piece of advice is that we absolutely need to listen up,
take note, and apply. After all, we all want to keep improving our lives and
make conscious adjustments which will engender happier states of being.
The counter effect is that all these helpful
articles and this need to play ‘philosopher’, when grouped together as a mass
of information, are showing us all the ways we’re not doing things as well as we theoretically could be. We seem to
have become oddly obsessed with quite blatantly telling each other to work
harder, take on a new hobby, find a new line of work, not take the small stuff
for granted, remove the ‘negative people’ in our lives (a particularly popular
one, this), and so many other bits and pieces of essential guidance that I
believe we’re only succeeding at demotivating each other. Sure, the intentions
are good - to support each other and help each other grow, but people did this
far more self-sufficiently once upon a time.
Several studies have been published which
point to the unhappiness so many feel when scrolling through a typical Facebook
news feed. One friend’s night out on the town, another’s visit to the zoo and a
cousin’s wedding day all form the rather unrealistic impression that others are
living more thrilling lives than your own.
Similarly, three motivational articles in one browsing session are
enough to leave one wondering where on earth to begin your self-improvement
journey? It’s akin to Googling two classic flu symptoms, and ending up
diagnosing yourself with stage 3 pancreatic cancer; the perception we’re left
with is of an urgency that doesn’t match up to the reality.
What do we take away from all of this? Well, we are simply being fed
more information than our internal processors can cope with. It’s so important
to take much of what we consume online with a pinch of salt – every now and
then, yes, it feels good to really invest in that special, well-written
article. It’s inspiring. It offers a refreshing perspective on life. But most
of the time, you were just fine before reading it.
We need to live life on our own terms. One would think doing exactly
what you want is easy, but it’s in fact a real battle when an excess of
information is ‘guiding’ you in a series of other apparently ‘better’
directions.
Be your own self-help
guide, and when that fails, call up a friend – most of the time, you’ll find out that you were only exaggerating to begin with and that your life, in truth, is just
as it should be.
