They've come out with another book in the "Chicken soup" series....Chicken Soup for the Indian teenager's soul...and the buzz is that there are several more in the pipeline already. In fact, if the buzz is to be believed, in the not too distant future, we will have chicken soup made to order for the Indian mother's soul, the diabetic's soul, and the Lord alone knows who else's soul.
Speaking of the books themselves, I have to admit I haven’t read too many of them…truth be told, I’ve managed to half-read only about half of one, Chicken Soup for the Indian soul. (No, that was not a mistake…I did say half-read half a book, ergo, I have, till date, managed to half-heartedly go through half of one book in the series). To be fair, the fact that I was only half-heartedly reading this book may be easily attributed to the fact that I was simultaenously reading The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor, which I found positively unputdownable (more on that in another post), while the Chicken Soup book continued to remain in my bag for reading in the train en route to work largely because I hate leaving books unfinished.
There can be no denying that the Chicken Soup series has its own fans, and I am sure several of them will rise to its defence if I were to say that my impression, based on my limited reading so far, is that the stories featured in the book are a little on the sappy side...well, I'll reserve my judgment till I actually finish reading the book (Yes, I am yet to finish it.)
But what struck me is not the book itself, but the genre to which it belongs...the genre of the motivational book. If one saunters into any bookstore worth its salt today, one is more likely than not to come across an entire section in the book store devoted to motivational books, or its first cousin, the self help book. Some stores, instead of restricting themselves to the narrow category of motivational books, prefer to club together a larger variety, resulting in an eclectic, and almost always interesting, mish mash of motivational books, self help books and books on self- improvement/ self- enlightenment/ self-awareness. And if the sale of books in this section is anything to go by, it would appear that there are a lot of people out there who need motivation, help and guidance in navigating their way through their experiences, careers, relationships and lives...
For starters, the surge in the sale of motivational books has me wondering whether we, as a generation, are facing a serious lack of motivation at large. To what else could one attribute the fact that to add to mid-life crisis, for instance, a significant chunk of the adult population is also facing what has been termed by experts as the “quarter-life crisis” – a situation where after having doggedly followed a dream or an ambition to make it big, land that plum job or secure admission in that foreign university for the longest time, once the said goal has been achieved, a vast section of today’s youth in urban India, find themselves floundering and hunting for inspiration to continue. The trend of succesful professionals who’ve quit their myriad succesful (and mostly corporate) jobs to take up something that makes them happy…ranging from painting, to travel and tourism to cooking to scuba diving, while a most heartening trend, also begs a question that could well be the corollary to the theme of this post, ergo, why would people want to take on or stick to jobs that do not motivate them? The answers to the question could be many, ranging from the paypacket (sad but true) to complacence, to more recently, the economic downturn, which makes it a wise decision to stick to a job one may not absolutely love, but which is comfortable and secure.
So how does one really describe this elusive yet all important emotion we call motivation? Does it mean (to put it in cliched terms) jumping out of bed every morning, ready to take on the world, face new challenges and emerge the winner in all circumstances? Does it mean (figuratively) bobbing up and down all over the place and trying to put one’s finger in as many pies as possible?
I would think all the above may be better employed to describe enthusiasm rather than motivation, and therefore the attitude typically exhibited by someone new to something. Ask me, been there done that. But what happens when the initial enthusiasm wears off? Also, given that not all of us may have been blessed in that we’ve discovered our true calling and are doing something that we honestly feel deeply about, how does one keep the motivation from lagging? Is motivation really something that can be conjured at will, or is it something that is inherently present in some and lacking in the others? Or again, is it that over time, our understanding of motivation has become straitjacketed, inasmuch that only certain qualities are taken as being indicative of motivation while everything else is not? Questions, questions and some more questions, none of which I have a ready answer to…
On a related note, another thing worth a thought would be the outcome of reliance solely on motivational books…for instance, A senses lack of motivation in himself (or herself) and while wondering what to do about it, saunters into a bookstore, comes across a book on motivating oneself, browses through it and decides that this book was written with him (or her) in mind and is therefor the panacea for all his (or her) problems. Having bought the book and after trying to implement the suggestions contained therein, A waits for the miracle to happen, when A will feel motivated and supercharged to take on anything that life throws his (or her) way…nothing happens, and A is further disillusioned, thinking that maybe his problem is beyond help, when really, no help has been sought at all. Is this therefore a vicious cycle?
I wonder whether it is ironical that in a country which frowns on a visit to the shrink for help, motivational and self help books enjoy robust sales, or whether it is because we as a nation frown on approaching an “outsider” for help, no matter how qualified the “outsider” may be, that we turn to other sources like motivational books, which may or may not address the issue at hand? For what else is a motivational book, if not self –medication, loosely translated. And in all probability, it comes with the attendant side effects of self medication as well…
The house is open for discussion…
Speaking of the books themselves, I have to admit I haven’t read too many of them…truth be told, I’ve managed to half-read only about half of one, Chicken Soup for the Indian soul. (No, that was not a mistake…I did say half-read half a book, ergo, I have, till date, managed to half-heartedly go through half of one book in the series). To be fair, the fact that I was only half-heartedly reading this book may be easily attributed to the fact that I was simultaenously reading The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor, which I found positively unputdownable (more on that in another post), while the Chicken Soup book continued to remain in my bag for reading in the train en route to work largely because I hate leaving books unfinished.
There can be no denying that the Chicken Soup series has its own fans, and I am sure several of them will rise to its defence if I were to say that my impression, based on my limited reading so far, is that the stories featured in the book are a little on the sappy side...well, I'll reserve my judgment till I actually finish reading the book (Yes, I am yet to finish it.)
But what struck me is not the book itself, but the genre to which it belongs...the genre of the motivational book. If one saunters into any bookstore worth its salt today, one is more likely than not to come across an entire section in the book store devoted to motivational books, or its first cousin, the self help book. Some stores, instead of restricting themselves to the narrow category of motivational books, prefer to club together a larger variety, resulting in an eclectic, and almost always interesting, mish mash of motivational books, self help books and books on self- improvement/ self- enlightenment/ self-awareness. And if the sale of books in this section is anything to go by, it would appear that there are a lot of people out there who need motivation, help and guidance in navigating their way through their experiences, careers, relationships and lives...
For starters, the surge in the sale of motivational books has me wondering whether we, as a generation, are facing a serious lack of motivation at large. To what else could one attribute the fact that to add to mid-life crisis, for instance, a significant chunk of the adult population is also facing what has been termed by experts as the “quarter-life crisis” – a situation where after having doggedly followed a dream or an ambition to make it big, land that plum job or secure admission in that foreign university for the longest time, once the said goal has been achieved, a vast section of today’s youth in urban India, find themselves floundering and hunting for inspiration to continue. The trend of succesful professionals who’ve quit their myriad succesful (and mostly corporate) jobs to take up something that makes them happy…ranging from painting, to travel and tourism to cooking to scuba diving, while a most heartening trend, also begs a question that could well be the corollary to the theme of this post, ergo, why would people want to take on or stick to jobs that do not motivate them? The answers to the question could be many, ranging from the paypacket (sad but true) to complacence, to more recently, the economic downturn, which makes it a wise decision to stick to a job one may not absolutely love, but which is comfortable and secure.
So how does one really describe this elusive yet all important emotion we call motivation? Does it mean (to put it in cliched terms) jumping out of bed every morning, ready to take on the world, face new challenges and emerge the winner in all circumstances? Does it mean (figuratively) bobbing up and down all over the place and trying to put one’s finger in as many pies as possible?
I would think all the above may be better employed to describe enthusiasm rather than motivation, and therefore the attitude typically exhibited by someone new to something. Ask me, been there done that. But what happens when the initial enthusiasm wears off? Also, given that not all of us may have been blessed in that we’ve discovered our true calling and are doing something that we honestly feel deeply about, how does one keep the motivation from lagging? Is motivation really something that can be conjured at will, or is it something that is inherently present in some and lacking in the others? Or again, is it that over time, our understanding of motivation has become straitjacketed, inasmuch that only certain qualities are taken as being indicative of motivation while everything else is not? Questions, questions and some more questions, none of which I have a ready answer to…
On a related note, another thing worth a thought would be the outcome of reliance solely on motivational books…for instance, A senses lack of motivation in himself (or herself) and while wondering what to do about it, saunters into a bookstore, comes across a book on motivating oneself, browses through it and decides that this book was written with him (or her) in mind and is therefor the panacea for all his (or her) problems. Having bought the book and after trying to implement the suggestions contained therein, A waits for the miracle to happen, when A will feel motivated and supercharged to take on anything that life throws his (or her) way…nothing happens, and A is further disillusioned, thinking that maybe his problem is beyond help, when really, no help has been sought at all. Is this therefore a vicious cycle?
I wonder whether it is ironical that in a country which frowns on a visit to the shrink for help, motivational and self help books enjoy robust sales, or whether it is because we as a nation frown on approaching an “outsider” for help, no matter how qualified the “outsider” may be, that we turn to other sources like motivational books, which may or may not address the issue at hand? For what else is a motivational book, if not self –medication, loosely translated. And in all probability, it comes with the attendant side effects of self medication as well…
The house is open for discussion…
