HOW SCROLLING THROUGH MY INSTAGRAM FEED MOTIVATES ME

Hey Re-inventors!

Speaking of today’s topic, my motivation comes from different places but I did not notice that this is also a medium that motivates me, until now.

How I realized that I get motivated by this

I usually avoid signing into my personal account as I think it can be a distraction but when I opened my account, I did not keep scrolling for a long time(like I used to do) but instead 2–3 minutes of scrolling motivated me to get back to work.

It is 10 p.m. and I am usually asleep by now because I am an early bird (and have to make it to the gym at 5:30 a.m.) but I could not resist getting my thoughts on the laptop, as soon as I realized this. Even the fact that this thought induced me to give on my sleep time is proof that I love doing this. Thus, my motivation also comes from here.

First of all let me get this clear, I am not talking about all the motivational pages that I follow. I am not talking about the fact that motivational quotes posted by a page motivate me to do work or hustle harder.

What motivates me instead is the photo of my friends

This is a quite strange fact even for me. And maybe it is because people that I know do not behave in the same manner.

I think I’ll be able to explain myself better through an example:

Suppose one of my friends posted a photo/Instagram story/snap which shows that he/she is on a vacation or partying or watching a movie i.e. “chilling”. Usually, my other friends would tell me “Bro! Did you see her photo? She is enjoying life and visiting places that she wants to, whereas we are here working and not even taking enough breaks(which is something I have to work upon, I guess).”

I am astonished by the fact that this demotivates my friend(s) and makes them think that they are sitting in a rut and people out there are living a happier life.(And that is a whole different topic, because much of the things on Instagram are simply not true)

Now, this does not happen with me. When I see a photo of my friend living a “leisure life” this is what exactly going through my mind:

“Oh so you are enjoying your dinner and watching Netflix, that is cute. So you do your thing and I will outwork you day in and day out and then we’ll see who stands where, 1 year, 2 years or 5 years down the line.”

You see? The competitive side of me is intense. I love seeing people enjoy themselves while I put in the work. Why? Because it simply gives me an edge over them.

It gives me a feeling of victory when I outwork them.

I don’t know about the future but I would really love when people who don’t know me and judge me will later see how less they knew about me and how I put in the work to achieve what I really want in life whereas they wasted their time.

On pondering more, I think the reason that I am not distracted or sad by such things is that I love what I am doing. Writing these articles every day and providing value to people on Medium and on Instagram is what I am focused on and is what I can do for hours and hours.

The other thing that induces this kind of behavior in me is my competitive nature. I do not like to see someone doing better than me, be it anything.

The other day I played Table Tennis with my friend for the first time. He is a professional player and I was holding the racquet the first time. Obviously, I lost the game. Although I knew that he is a professional player, I still was pissed off because I lost and was not ready to accept that loss just because my opponent was more experienced. I wanted to defeat him really bad! So yeah that’s me!

So, this was me telling you guys how I get motivated by something which all of us consider a distraction. Now it’s your turn! Tell me what motivates you down in the comments!

Hit that green little heart to show some love!

Be happy and keep Re-inventing yourself

CHEEERS!