Turncoat stated: source post
How easy do you think it is to do that? I'd argue that certain people are more predisposed to be distracted by those sorts of things than others. It's a nice way to be programmed, but it's ultimately another form of using distraction to avoid despair and numbing, and it doesn't come naturally to the aimless. They need a reason to care, and that lot tend to be more apathetic than not.
Basically, you aren't wrong, but it's not as easy to accomplish as telling someone like they've never heard it before, they need to be motivated.
Don't get me started on motivation, I can talk for hours about it. Sure, some people are easier to motivate than others. There is internal motivation, and external motivation.
You know why we find this apathetic type of folk nowadays? Because hell, they just have everything they fucking need, and they really need very little. They have a place to sleep, they have food in their bellies, often because mommy and daddy provided. Why the fuck would they want more? Why work and become more? It is hard to be moved to do anything when you are satisfied with your condition. But take someone who has everything to lose if they don't do something, take a desperate person who can't afford medication or food for themselves or their children, give them a chance to change that, they will be fucking motivated. They will do whatever it takes to reach that goal if given the chance. This is why so often people from poor countries will work their ass off to have the chances for the future some western country "apathic" kids have. They will fucking hop on shitty boats and give away all their life's savings and face risk of drowning, torture, sex abuse, just for an insignificant part of the chance an average apathetic fucktard gets for granted or squanders in civilized countries. Take an apathetic person who doesn't find motivation to, say, learn to swim. Tell them you will throw them in the sea in one month, they will fucking train daily. In extreme situations, we are something different entirely. We are surprised by the stuff we can do when we really fucking want it, and the mental and body limitations we thought we had: completely surpassed. It is why people like Systematic crave apocalyptic shit. They know they can be so much more, but can't find the internal motivation. They need something external, they need to be thrown out of the nest by momma eagle to learn how to fly.
In order to become motivated, you first need to have the motivation to be motivated. Without that, you can just fuck it. But if you know you need motivation, if you really understand that, and you keep telling yourself you need it, then this is the first step. If you understand you have the power to change yourself and turn your life around, and that only you stand between yourself and your goals, then it will become easier. It is mental training, it is about what you keep telling to yourself in a huge part
Then there are more routes you can take: One is to find the extreme situation you need and throw yourself into it. You are a 25yo still living with mommy and daddy? You have everything you need from them and you are pretty much a loser who can't stand on his own? Get out of there, live on your own. Do smth crazy, buy a one way ticket to Africa, screw the safety path that has you turned into a spineless worm. Work to feed the kids there, I don't know. Just a small example. Sure you might fucking die. A lot of things can go wrong and seem scary when you are mommy's boy, but when you are put in those extreme situations you are forced to grow your wings and you will surprise yourself. You will definitely become more than you are. It is why I can tell apart the people with world experience from those without, miles away.
The other route is to keep talking to yourself in your head, meditate on the stuff you want and can't bring yourself to do. Think about it daily, don't push it aside and pass the time distracted in video games or smth. Let those thoughts run around in your head, picture yourself doing what you want to do, and the seed will grow and eventually the gap between thought and action will become smaller and smaller. This autosuggestion works, there are neurological basis for this. It is why people can even be brainwashed against their will, radicalized, self radicalized, etc. Feed and water the seed, and it will grow. After you make that first step over the gap (which can be, for example, picking up that book you need to study from to get into a good college), things can only get easier because starting something is the most difficult part. You still have difficulties after this first step? Use some elements from the first route. Take your book and run away in some isolated corner without internet and other distraction, a cabin somewhere, just you and the book. Then inertia will take over at some point, and the better you become at something, the more you will love it. The more energy you put into something, the more difficult it will be to give it up and walk away from what you have achieved. So if you can make an effort in the beginning, then you certainly have the power to carry on, because carrying on is easier than starting something after a while.
" it's ultimately another form of using distraction to avoid despair and numbing " -> this is such bullshit. No dude, the numbness and despair are abnormal, not the baseline/ the given state that we somehow scurry around to avoid. Numbness and despair are products of something wrong in your life, not the hidden boogyman that makes people "distract themselves" by living better lives lmao.
Truth is we, as animals, have reached pretty much the goals nature asked for us: to eat, sleep, fuck. Wanting more than to fulfill our biological needs is a big part of what separates us from animals though.
If you just waste your energy, you will regret it later, I have seen it happen.
We all have, he probably has too, but where's the balance between that and sacrificing your youth in the name of success?
There is a big space in between imo. The definition and perception of sacrifice is also very subjective. I would say that drugs and living entirely "in the moment" is sacrificing your youth. Those things, on the side, are much healthier and enjoyable.
