Saturday, September 26, 2020

Motivational speakers don’t change your life.

"Motivational speeches are like drugs. We listen and get intoxicated in the atmosphere and illusion created for a few hours." 

Long back, one of the friends took me to the event citing that there is a great motivational speaker who is going to change our life. When I asked him how exactly he will do that? He told me that it is good to listen to the speaker. Of course, there was a ticket.

Those days were very hard, struggle was immense. What I wanted was good advice to do something different in life. So, I decided to join. The event was organised in a big hotel. When we entered the hall, the atmosphere was energetic and everybody was excited to listen to the speaker. Few people were roaming around and cheering the audience. They were asking to clap, to cheer. Yes, it was exciting. After half an hour, the anchor announced that the speaker was entering on the stage. He requested to stand up and clap for the speaker. It was a mesmerizing atmosphere there.

Speaker arrived on the stage. He shouted, “Hey guys, do you want to make the change in your life?

Audience responded, “Yesssssssssss”

Speaker started the speech. It was like one act play, moving and running from one corner of the stage to another corner. He was jumping and hollering while telling a few known stories. In between asking the response from the audience. Speech was full of inspirational stories, citations, Hindi Shayari, jokes and a lot of words like, extra mile, discipline, focus, conviction and so on.  No doubt, it was a great speech.

Eventually, when we came out of the session, we were happy and everybody was speaking about the speaker, his style, his stories. After 2-3 days, my friend and I totally forgot his speech. For us, it was another entertaining event. I had attended a few more sessions of few more motivational speakers and it was not different from what I attended the earlier one.

There are 4 types of motivational speakers,

  • Speakers who have achieved something in their life and they become motivational speakers, like Arunima Sinha or similar.
  • Some CEOs, CXOs or great business leaders who are invited regularly on different forums after their retirement.  
  • Professionals who practiced hard to become speaker and became motivational speakers
  • Professionals who were in sales of some insurance, FMCG or some multi-level marketing (MLM) company.  

I like listening to the first 2 categories. They are authentic, genuine and they have their own experience to share.

However, we should understand that motivational speakers don’t change our life. It is upto us what message we take from them. If you follow everything they speak, you may get in trouble. Most of the time, they don’t motivate people to change the behaviour. Otherwise the world would have been different. We have a lot of speakers, spiritual leaders, mentors who deliver messages and still people have their own issues. It is pertinent to note that you have to fight your battles and face your own struggles. What others say may not be relevant to you. Inspirational speeches did not equal motivation to create real change for the audience hearing.  It did not mean that three days after the event, when people were back in the office, that it had any impact on their behaviour one little bit. 

Motivational speeches are like drugs. We listen and get intoxicated in the atmosphere and illusion created for a few hours. After that we are back to the normal and forget everything. 

I am not against listening to motivational speakers; however, it is important to believe in your own competencies and ability to undertake tasks and achieve your goals. This is also called “Self-Efficacy”. Hearing one of these speakers does not build self-efficacy and belief that you can achieve something more – it may in fact do the opposite. Same is applicable to LinkedIn stories.   

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(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organization)

16 comments:

Swapnil Gupta said...

Its true that Motivational speakers do not change attitudes. The people who can change us are the ones who really practice what they say and these can only be spiritually elevated persons. A spiritual master only says what is written in scriptures and he practices the same as well. We need to find them to get real knowledge and inspiration about not only the material but spiritual world as well.

Neha Mehta said...

This is a great post! Motivation and Inspiration can be drawn from anyone. Its indeed up to us. Mentors, Speakers, Coaches after a point become redundant if we don't want to change or accept the change. The answers lie within. We can derive motivation even from an ordinary event or daily life. But that's only if we are willing to. There is definitely a way to bring about these changes but without the right intention, it may take a long time. E.g. Schools also have a set up of learning. Students feel great when they are together studying but the moment they come home, they want to play, relax and enjoy. But if they don't do their 'homework' the learning pattern fades very quick. And then if we blame the teachers for not doing a good job, well, we need to grow up! Thank you so much Vinod Bidwaik. Always love your posts :)

Maneesh Johari said...

So true - and the same observation has been shared with me by many organisations.
And then they promptly repeat the same type of event....
You see - it is a 'feel good' factor...and
.. the participants don't need to take any effort to change anything or learn anything or modify their behaviour !!
Just listen passively - feel elated for a few hours at the most - and soon fall back to their old ways.
The only changes are in: the 'event conducted' - box checked and the bank accounts...

Lalita Vasu said...

Really liked the way you’ve explained the concept. #mustread

Hanumant Lal Shukla said...

true , motivational video or speaker does not change our behavior
it is our boss or parents which influence us or internal decison based on facts

Cicilia said...

true , motivational video or speaker does not change our behavior
it is our boss or parents which influence us or internal decison based on facts

Rakesh Kumar Singh said...

It's all about the matter of guidance Vinod Bidwaik

It's true, that it's you and only you who can bring in a change.

But, a little guidance has never proven to go wrong.

B B Z Ptil said...

Very true sir! Now a days it's happening immensely.
Respected Dr. Kalam sir said, don't read success stories, read failure stories.

Sagar Sharma said...

Very True Sir!! It totally depends on level of thinking & what person has grasp to improve their behaviour from speech.

OHR said...

True. Nobody can change anyone unless and until he decides himself. Their thoughts/Speech to be taken for reference. Thanks Vinod for sharing your wonderful thoughts. God bless you.

OHR said...

True. Nobody can change anyone unless and until he decides himself. Their thoughts/Speech to be taken for reference. Thanks Vinod sharing

Sachin Aute said...

Very true. I always quote your example as you come in first two category. Your all articles are related to your personal experiences in life as well as your work experience in leadership.
Keep writing....

Dr. Dhanashri Vinod Bidwaik said...

Take away from this article is that you have to fight your own battles and face your own struggles.Thanks indeed nice article 👍

Avdhut Musale said...

Wonderful insights, you hit the nail on the head as always.

It's a YOU-Eat-YOU world. Your own thoughts and actions make you or break you, not the others.

Sandeep Pawar said...

Nicely explained! Motivation has become a a daily dose of dopamine for the majority. Thank you so much sir for sharing 😊

Sandeep Pawar said...

Nicely explained! Motivation has become a a daily dose of dopamine for the majority. Thank you so much sir for sharing 😊

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