By Lakshani Perera
In the 21st century, we are living amidst many challenges and obstacles. It is a universal fact that we have to face challenges that affect our physical, mental, and even spiritual health. From birth to death, we face various challenges at different stages of our lives.
The decisions we make in our lifetime may not always be right and we might fail in the work we do. Mistakes can happen and wrong decisions can be made. Sometimes due to illnesses or imperfections, society will drag you down, make fun of you, and marginalize you. One might feel hopeless and even ponder to take your own life.
However, I believe that the lessons learnt from each defeat and breakdown is a motivation and a blessing in disguise. Motivation guides us to success. Instead, if we spend time thinking about failures every day, we will be dragging ourselves down. Motivation is one of the things we require to be well mentally and physically. It can be defined as something we must instill in ourselves to stand strong in the presence of challenges.
We cannot assume that everything we do will be 100% successful. Sometimes it can be successful or unexpectedly fruitless. When we fail, we think we have lost. Most of the time we would never be able to get up again. We suffer and waste our precious time with distress for days, weeks, months, and years.
We need to accept the failures as they are. Failure is a good way to push a person forward to succeed in life. It builds a strong foundation for the future of your life as you build it within yourself.
Motivation is easily influenced by external factors such as hunger, sleep, destitution, and internal factors such as sadness, boredom, and fear. Just imagine, you try making a positive change but within a couple of weeks, days or even hours, your motivation waned. So how do we make progress towards our goals if we cannot rely on motivation?
We can follow two simple tactics in order to be motivated in our lives.
Building Good Habits
1. Make a clear goal and an actionable habit
2. Start smaller and better
3. Write down your habits, goals, and keep track of your progress
Self-Control
Choose something small that you are confident that you can definitely do. For example, if you don’t enjoy exercise, but you have a goal to lose weight by exercising more, push yourself to go for a walk, for light running, or to do yoga. You can even look for ways to practice self-control that are related to your goals.
To move forward in your life, you need to give yourself a push. We have to get rid of boredom and work with the determination to overcome whatever obstacles come our way.
People who have suffered terribly in their lives and who have been ridiculed by society, have changed their life story splendidly by being strongly motivated by their hearts and mind. Many desperate people have conquered the world, regardless of disability. Not only have they conquered their own lives, but also, they have given a new vision to society.
I’m going to tell you about Sri Lanka’s Ashcharya Peiris and Australia’s Nick Vujicic, 2 of the many who challenged their destiny, and won back both personal and career lives amidst many hardships.
Ashcharya Peiris
In the year 2000, when she was 20 years of age, was caught in a bomb blast and lost complete eye sight. After that terrible incident, even her family members had treated her unfairly. She was living alone when her own family abandoned her.
She had to endure all sorts of issues, such as loneliness, anxiety, discrimination, and shame. She faced many problems including financial and security. Although she was mentally discouraged, she began to look for answers to her questions. When she heard about a leading fashion design competition in Sri Lanka, she applied for it. She competed side by side with other contestants and finally took home the ‘Emerging Fashion Designer’ award beating all of them.
Today she is the first visually impaired fashion designer in Sri Lanka. And also the third living award-winning visually impaired designer in the world. She is also on the list of the 100 Most Influential and motivating Women in the World.
Nicholas James Vujicic
Nick was born in Melbourne, Australia, without arms nor legs. As a teenager, Nick became bored with life, convinced that he could do nothing because of his disability. He had even attempted suicide once.
One day, his mother had shown an article in a newspaper to the young Nick, who was grieving. The article described the struggle and the success of a man who had lost a limb and was severely disabled.
After reading that article, Nick began to think about himself. Keeping aside the regret and suicidal thoughts, Nick turned to and focused heavily on university education. He entered Griffith University in Australia and completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the age of 21. After completing his university education, he began lecturing on motivation on a corporate level. He had a wonderful ability to encourage people who were depressed.
He inherited that ability from his own experience. People flocked to hear Nick speaking. An accomplished speaker, he received invitations from all over the world. From there he succeeded and established a company called “Attitude is Altitude” to carry out his work and expand the reach to deserving audiences. The most amazing fact is this young man, 3 feet and 3 inches tall, took the hand of a beautiful young woman in 2012. Now, he has a beautiful family with children.
If we are blessed with hands and feet, a healthy life and if we have a beating heart, what else do we lack? Be strong with what you have. Take things in stride and try not to focus too much on the problem.
We lose our motivation because of a lack of confidence, lack of focus, lack of direction.
Motivate and charge your batteries with energy, get things done, and succeed in life! Push yourself and Break Barriers…!
