Are You A Motivation Junkie?
Success seminars and motivational coaching may be hiding a deeper problem.
Call it sour grapes if you want. The 4-figure price tags on some of these motivational workshops and seminars still kick my inner calculator into counting the books and staycation days I could afford with the same money.
If you’re the investigative sort, you’ll have heard that motivation doesn’t last. But it’s definitely high while you’re under the spell of a big-name motivational speaker, fired up by loud music, crowd pressure, high-fives, and other rapid-fire NLP techniques. Attendees of huge big-ticket events describe a high that says with them for 2 to 3 days.
Then it fizzes out in the daily grind until the next motivational event.
Yet, I’ve met people who attend the same events again and again, even though they can cost between $2,500 to $5,000 a pop. One starts to wonder if the short-term effects are a feature and not a bug.
The motivational speaking industry in the US alone is worth $1.9 billion. Self-help and motivational book titles tend to clog the bestseller lists. Top authors and speakers are paid 4-, 5-, and 6-figure fees for speeches to top listed companies, as well as to MLM or multi-level-marketing company events.
Little surprise that all this has inspired a new generation of Millennial motivational gurus, sharing inspirational quotes via countless pastel squares in Instagram’s 1080x1080 format.
Motivational content is now as ubiquitous as advertising. The message from the motivational coaches and speakers, varied and legion as they are, seldom changes: Anyone failing in the current capitalist hellscape can’t blame the system, only their “mindset” and negative limiting beliefs.
(But don’t think too hard about it, it’s time for another testimonial and anecdotal success story!)
Why Do We Need Motivational Content?
They may feel like the low-calorie, high-gratification snack foods of self-help, but let us count the ways:
- Inspiring messages are quick and positive
- They’re popular and general enough to be relatable
- Some of us enjoy the communities around motivational content
- Some are looking for encouragement
- Some may be using motivational content as distraction from uncomfortable thoughts or challenges
- Some use motivational content to rekindle passion in projects that have lost steam but they feel obligated to complete
- Some of us are overburdened or burnt out and use motivational messages to cope
- Some may have internalized the messages that all their struggles and failures are their fault, instead of the result of a confluence of factors, including systemic ones. Motivational books are easier to read than sociology texts on opportunity and inequality.
This is not an exhaustive list, because here’s one more example: some people are lapping up motivational content to hold onto hope in systems that are stacked against success.
Motivation and MLMs: Don’t Stop Believin’
Multi-Level Marketing companies are no longer about Tupperware, make-overs, or even mood board parties; You need look no further than social media to find popular influencers flogging weight-loss, wellness, or beauty products.
The Covid years brought a sudden deluge of new MLM recruits into an industry that had been slowly fading — the promises of new income streams and “owning your own business” were hard to resist during the pandemic peak. Recruiters just needed to hint at awesome opportunities and flexible “work anywhere” hours while posting themselves with the usual status symbols and hashtags.
Almost everyone was desperate for extra income and #financialfreedom.
It’s probably fair to say that new MLM recruits were in the dark about the statistics from the Federal Trade Commission: 99% of participants in MLMs actually lose or make no money.
So what better way to keep them believing than more motivational workshops and coaching?
But in recent years this unholy alliance has (thankfully) fired up Millennial and Gen Z TikTok and YouTube channels exposing how MLMs gain and retain recruits through deception (hashtag: #antiMLM).
They’re infiltrating MLM training and motivational group calls. They’re spreading content from Reddit’s anti-MLM group (790,000 strong at the time of writing). These “haters” are calling out the motivational pablum that MLM team leaders are constantly lobbing at their downlines while hiding or ignoring exploitative MLM practices.
Some of these same anti-MLM content producers are now going after motivational content producers, speakers, and authors, and they’re not pulling any punches.
And their criticisms are along the same lines as what psychologists and researchers have found: Motivational programs don’t really work. Likewise, leadership programs cannot fix or overcome organizational inefficiencies even when the employees are all fired up to perform.
The Problem with Motivational Content
Edward R. Murrow might have said it best: “Our greatest obligation is not to confuse slogans with solutions.”
Motivational content speaks in generalities and relatable everyman anecdotes. This is part of its popularity, but also its lack of efficacy — it’s the Swiss army knife from Wish when one could use a BOSCH. (Or insert your power tool of choice.)
Motivational content speaks to speak to entrepreneurs and small business owners as one bloc when every business and industry has its unique problems and dynamics. It tells feel-good stories but offers little for understanding individual needs or specific workable solutions for those needs.
Some have pointed out that success stories and motivational content can do more harm than good if they lead to an adherent feeling like a failure and more isolated when the motivational content doesn’t work.
Or, the motivational stuff “works” when something else — privilege, prominence, money, luck, timing, strategy, etc — has more influence on success than “hard work”. (The failure rates for MLMs don’t change no matter how many hours of “hustle” someone puts in.)
So motivational content has the following real and potentially harmful effects:
- The fleeting effects of motivation require regular doses when better-targeted intervention could be more helpful to an individual
- They distract from systemic blocks to success and put the burden solely on individuals when systemic change may be needed as well
- They may cause people to villainize negative emotions that actually need recognition and processing
- Individuals may feel shame, distress, and isolation when motivation doesn’t work
- Individuals lose time and energy to the motivation “problem” and do not address real needs and issues.
I tend to fall into the camp that believes motivational content is fine if it’s part of a balanced media diet. I’d still rather find content that is targeted toward specific problems and challenges, and I’d like the solutions to be evidence-based instead of anecdotal.
But I am also human and aware that a good anecdote can make an idea stick better. This seems to be what motivational content does best.
Motivation That Works
The biggest issue is that there is no “one size fits all” solution to the challenges we face. It has nothing to do with whether we’ve internalized enough Zig Ziglar or Deepak Chopra.
If the problem is motivation, there are also psychological studies on how motivation works — and in short, it can be finding the intrinsic rewards for ourselves that are uniquely individual.
And sometimes, it’s not about motivation.
The good news is, if you’re willing to explore, we live in a time of plentiful resources for issues such as burnout, anxiety, depression, complex trauma, emotional dysregulation, and relational difficulties.
I hope that more people go beyond motivational content — and self-blame — when they need help.
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