This post delves into an unconventional yet essential topic that many have asked about: motivation. While we usually discuss practical business growth, today we’re exploring how to become as “unmotivated” as possible – and why that’s exactly what you want. This might seem subtle, so I’ll exaggerate slightly to make my point clear and visible throughout.
Beyond Motivation: The True Meaning of Freedom 🕊️
So, a free person is an unmotivated person! Don’t misunderstand; I don’t mean someone enslaved by sloth, lethargy, or inertia. Instead, I mean someone who has transcended the conventional ideas of motivation, reward, punishment, fear, and greed.
Such an individual doesn’t act calculatingly but intuitively does the right thing, follows their intuition, and lives their dreams. They aren’t worried about failure, aren’t craving future success, and live fully in the moment, flowing yet perfectly present and still. This is the essence of effortless productivity.
Motivation vs. Inspiration: Understanding the Difference 🎯
What is motivation, after all? It’s often just an emotional high caused by external forces—a trainer, a coach, a motivational speaker, a video, or a strong desire for achievement. It’s fleeting, goes up and down, and can feel like a crutch, like coffee or even opium. This kind of drive is inherently limited.
But inspiration is different. It’s the profound knowing that what you desire has already happened; its arrival is simply a matter of time. Inspiration is the certainty that your thirst itself proves the existence of water somewhere. You already possess all you need to be happy in this very moment. This truth is so real that you cease to care about the goal itself. You have perfect faith and trust in the process, becoming perfectly immersed in it.
It’s about living as if your deepest aspirations are already your reality, as if your wish is already fulfilled. Then, action becomes nothing more than your free expression. It’s like burping or having an orgasm – you don’t overthink it, you can’t force it, and you take no particular credit or blame. It just happens. When you’re in this state, things simply happen for you. You don’t need motivation; in fact, you don’t want it, because motivation is a beggar, while inspiration is a queen. This is key to achieving true mastery.
As Chuang Tzu wisely put it:
The Hidden Cost of Cognitive Control and Effort 💡
Consider how effortlessly our senses function: Do our eyes strain to capture light? Do our ears make an effort to clutch sound waves? Can we taste better by stiffening the tongue? Does the nose make an effort to accumulate fragrances? Is the texture of a surface felt better by applying undue pressure with fingers?
No, it happens spontaneously. Light falls spontaneously on the retina, smells pervade the air and enter through the nostrils spontaneously, sound waves beat the eardrums in their passivity, the tongue doesn’t stiffen to taste better, and surface texture is felt best by the modest touch of fingertips, not by exerting undue pressure.
Similarly, the Mind, in its passivity, is a far greater instrument than in its activity. This ancient truth has stood the test of time. When you divide it with future expectations, with ideas of success and failure, you disturb its natural process and lose its spontaneous working. This is where cognitive control can become a hindrance.
The Stroop Test: Experiencing Mental Effort Firsthand 🔬
To illustrate this point, let’s try a neuropsychological experiment called the Stroop test. Say aloud the color the word below is printed in, not what the word says:
Green
That was likely easy, quick, and caused no confusion. Now, try it again. Say the color aloud. Remember, only the color:
Maroon
Unless you’re a cognitive anomaly, you likely paused or accidentally said “Maroon” or “Ma-Yellow.” What you just experienced is cognitive control: the feeling of having to stop a natural reaction and impose another.
A part of your brain detects conflict between the parts that recognize color and those that read English. This conflict triggers the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) to signal caution, bringing in the prefrontal cortex to resolve the issue. All of this takes significant time and effort.
This feeling of effort, and the slight delay you likely experienced, gives you a sense of both what cognitive control and effort feel like, along with their limitations. Because it’s hard, you’re actually a bit fatigued afterward. After a Stroop test, one has less self-control. If offered an apple versus cookies, even dieters often choose the cookies.
Self-control depletes our energy. Every day, we make hundreds of tiny decisions that drain our decision-making ability. This leads us to revert to habitual actions because they’re the easy way out: cookies over apples, conflict over reconciliation, stress over peace, sickness over health.
When you try to control everything—restraining everyone’s behavior, forcing order in chaos—you’re attempting to force an outcome with variables outside your control. This manifests as anxiety or panic, where you overcorrect to the point of freezing or jittering. It’s like a thermostat with no tolerance, sending rapid on-off signals that cause the entire system to collapse.
Embracing Wu Wei: The Path to Spontaneous Action and True Flow 🍃
This is precisely why spontaneity is so crucial. If we had to exert effort and cognitive control constantly, we’d be exhausted before the day was through. Wu Wei is an ancient Chinese term, which I translate as “nothing to do” or “non-doing.” In this state, you’re not trying to do, nor trying not to do; it’s simply a state of “Don’t Care!”
As Lao Tzu wisely stated:
Despite contrary expectations, this is the most productive state of mind. The mind is unified, free, desireless, fearless, and flowing. Things simply happen for you! It’s like the Brazilian football team dancing their way through the field—fearless, free-flowing, not restrained like robots with clicking joints. This is the heart of Wu Wei productivity.
Riding the Chaos: Letting Go for Perfect Control 🌬️
Instead of trying to control chaos, you ride the chaos. By letting go of control, you arrive at perfect control. So, instead of making a decision, start making a choice, and act on the first thought that comes to you. Otherwise, the old pattern of habitual action and thinking will talk you out of any positive change. This is why people struggle to make lasting change.
Action Without Expectation: Learning from Nature’s Wisdom 🌳🧠
Be like a wave or a cloud. Have you ever seen a badly shaped wave? An ugly cloud? If you regard yourself as a cloud or a wave and realize you can’t make a mistake, you simply swim through the chaos. Even if you don’t get exactly what you first expected, you’ll gain the self-confidence to turn it into a positive. But if you lack self-confidence, you’ll make mistakes through sheer fumbling and even be paralyzed by indecisiveness (what we now call an anxiety or panic attack).
Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki shares this wisdom:
Integrating Wu Wei into Daily Life: Practical Steps to Spontaneity 🪜
While I could continue discussing this endlessly, Wu Wei isn’t merely a theory; it cannot be grasped through words alone. You must try it out. Act on the first thought you have: go talk to that person you like and ask them out, go for a walk or run, book that flight to your dream destination, submit that job application or business proposal. Don’t think, just do. I guarantee that if you don’t, the inertia of past thoughts will wear down all new ideas. This is the path to effortless mastery.
Allowing Mistakes: The Key to Authentic Growth ❌🌱📈
Realize that in the beginning, you will make mistakes. In fact, you must allow yourself to make mistakes. But don’t worry, because after a while, you’ll gain a different type of control that comes not from grasping but from letting go. Don’t seek perfection. Things will never be “perfect,” because what is perfect? What does it even mean? It’s just an abstract and stagnant idea of how things should be, indicating a total lack of trust in things as they are and as they transform each moment. How do you know if everything isn’t already perfect?
Experiencing Existence: The Joy of the Present Moment ☀️😊
You don’t need to accomplish something monumental like landing a rocket on Mars to smile. Once you do that, what’s next? But if you can smile looking at the sun, the flowers, the butterflies; feeling the breeze ringing the leaves and your ears, the wind caressing your face; if you can smile at someone else smiling – isn’t that your equivalent of going to Mars?
Don’t you realize this moment is eternity, it is the perfection, the state of equilibrium the Universe has arrived at from that first spark, what we call the Big Bang? Aren’t the stars at night a fireworks display celebrating that great event? Look around: what are the birds, the plants, the clouds, the waves, the winds doing? What purpose are they serving? They don’t care about such notions; they’re simply having fun, experiencing the joy and gratitude of existence. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier to have nothing at all?
Practices for Cultivating Wu Wei 🔁
There are indeed practices that can help you cultivate letting go of control and becoming more spontaneous. These include:
⚽ Sports
👯 Dancing
🎷 Jazz Music
🖋️ Calligraphy
🥋 Martial Arts
🧘 Yoga
🪷 Zen Meditation
These activities can give you a taste of what spontaneity feels like in isolation before you learn to apply it in everyday life.
As Chuang Tzu again reminds us:
Let go of the empty words. Simply Practice! Practice! Practice! Stop thinking and start dancing, flowing through life like a wave, floating like a cloud! This is the true Asian secret to productivity and mastery.
Let’s Keep the Flow Going! 👇🌊
Hope this journey into Wu Wei sparked a new way of thinking about productivity and mastery for you! 🧘♀️✨
What resonated most? 🤔 Have you experienced those effortless flow moments where things just “happened”? ✨ We’d love to hear it! 🗣️👇
Drop your insights in the comments below! Let’s build a vibrant community flowing with wisdom. 🏘️💖
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Stay inspired, stay effortless! You got this! 💖💫