I just finished reading the book – the Motivated Mind by J. M. Gracia. This book describes the six pillars that create a motivated mind: (1) understand. (2) desire, (3) belief, (4) plan, (5) action, and (6) maintain. I was mostly drawn toward desire, plan, and action.
The best thing this book has done to me is to bring some clarity and order to my desires and dreams. The author helps in discovering one’s desires through exploration and answering some key questions. Broadly, the reader is asked to prepare 6 lists of (short and long term) desires: Things I want to possess (OWN), Things I want to experience (DOING), and Things I want to be (BEING). My owning list had very few items, precisely, 3. Thanks to the minimalism religion I follow. The other lists had several items: 13 (short term doing) 18 (long term doing), 6 (short term being), 19 (long term being). This acted like a quick and mini soul searching experience. Another aspect of the book that I liked was the description about the key elements of a good strategy. A good strategy is segmented, specific scheduled, measurable, tracked, and recorded. I intend to test these elements with the discovered desires.
Here are some excerpts worth reflection.
“I do believe that he had a desire to leave his job. The only problem was, he didn’t want it enough.”
“Its really a crazy situation when you think about it. People put so much time and energy into choosing what clothes they want to wear, car they buy, restaurants they eat at, and even which candy bar they want most. They will spend hours, days, and even months giving thought to what color they want to paint their bedroom walls or whom to invite to their wedding, but when it comes to planning out a happy and successful future, the thinking stops. People are too busy being unhappy to think what they want.”
“There is always a reason behind not doing something, …, you learned that negative motivation stems from the fear of giving up the pleasure of inaction and incurring the pain of action. These fears are pushed under the carpets of stories and excuse. No one wants to admit they’are afraid, but everyone wants to give you a good story.”
“If you want different, you have to do different.”
“The real power is not what happens to you but how you respond to the situation.”
“Creating a strategy will do many things, but one thing it will not do is to replace authentic desire.”
“Studies have shown that you will forget approximately 80% of what you learn within one or two days. It is imperative to record every element of your strategy.”
“The man who graduates today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after.” Newton D. Baker
“Every person worth admiring follows a philosophy of constant learning.”
Although this book was somewhat overwhelming, overall, I enjoyed reading it and learning from it. I recommend it to anyone looking for some less chaos in thoughts and an upsurge in motivation.
