Why Many Motivational Articles and Speakers May Have the Opposite Effect On You

The problem with a lot of motivational quotes, articles and speakers is that they make it sound like you could be immortal, all powerful and rule the world. In their quest to be a great motivator, they try to empower you to "be anything you want to be" and will quote you anything and everything they need to tell you to make you feel like you could take on the world.

If you're feeling even the slightest bit of self doubt, that's probably not what you need. Your sarcasm mode kicks in and starts translating all of those grandios promises into a "that's fine for everyone else but not for me" lashing that you give to yourself long after you're done reading/listening.

You know what? Most people can't be anything they want to be, most people can't take over the world and when it comes to being immortal or all powerful, let's be thankful that most people won't ever get that.

Let's be realistic. Even if all the cards fell perfectly into place and you had nothing but driver, determination and motivation... you still likely wouldn't be hitting the top 10 list in Forbes magazine any time soon.

The thing to remember is that no one goes from 0 to 10 without taking a lot of steps in between. For you to feel self doubt and be promised the world is skipping a lot of steps.

You have to push those aside and come back to them when you're a 9.5 and not sure how to be a 10. Learn to recognize when that sarcasm mode kicks in and either take it for what it is, humour, or shut it up.

The more you keep telling yourself that you don't fit into what they're telling you, the more you start to believe yourself and then it becomes true. Maybe it was true before, maybe it wasn't... you'll never know because you make it true.

So stop it, skip it, find something else that is more on your level and read that. Maybe an article on beginner goal setting is better suited to you if you feel like you're never achieving anything. Once you get that out of the way, improve some more areas and continue upwards on that ladder. Maybe the articles promising world domination will be better suited to you after that.

But until then, don't beat yourself up because of what someone you don't know thinks you might be capable of.