The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi
IF there is a skeptic over this title many people today, big and small, have Christened themselves with, I am that skeptic.
Before going too far, first of all I do not believe anyone can motivate another. The best motivator of people is self. Even in all of Jesus’ life on earth, he did not motivate anyone. Paul did not. The same way, John the Baptist and the rest of them did not motivate people to become Christians. They taught them the truth about the Father in Heaven and the way to Heaven or hell if one chose that path, and let them choose life or death. There were no incentives or motivational speeches.
That aside, if there are people like motivational speakers today, and those that I know are mere textbook researchers and ‘parrots’ of psychologists and philosophers, some do it well, others do it miserably as expected. Some have read a lot of books and can share the wisdom of their authors with their audiences. All of them are so-called motivational speakers. The question is how effective are these speeches? Most of them are sheer beautiful noises made by very clever people who speak well and impressively but have no personal charm or experiences to genuinely share with their audiences and touch their hearts and minds.
You gather around a motivational speaker. You are wetting your pants to get to a certain point straight in your life or you want to get out of a serious personal prison, dilemma or disillusionment. The speaker has never experienced any of it but has read a lot about it. So what does he or she do? He or she collects, usually memorizing, a lot of philosophical jargon and discourse from a popular author-and pretends he is speaking.
Meanwhile, he is transmuting the wisdom of a writer whom he is too proud to acknowledge or quote. That is motivational speaking. That is a motivational speaker: a rich man or woman who has never been poor or broke, speaking to people as poor as church mice to become as rich as he or she is.
You can use your own examples of motivators whose speeches simply don’t genuinely and honestly add up to touch the heart of a listener who not only has a serious problem, difficulty, dilemma or disillusionment but genuine problems and challenges.
That is why motivational speakers choose the topics to talk about, and not the audiences of listeners. Well, assuming I have not convinced you that there is no effective motivational speaking a man or woman can do to change anybody’s life except to tell them the truth and allow them to think and choose, I want you to listen to this.
If there is any amount of motivational speaking that must go into a school, it must begin with the teachers. The teachers need this animal called motivation more than the students. Once they are motivated, they can motivate their pupils every day, every time they are with them. If the teachers are not motivated, I don’t know how they can be motivated, beyond telling them the truth about their job, how to enjoy it with its frustrations and disappointments; their students are in the trouble of being led and taught by a man or woman in hell to find the way to heaven.
If you don’t know or understand what I am talking about, ask the teachers in schools where I have had opportunity to address them; to talk to them about this honourable job many people laugh about and at; where I have suggested ways of enjoying teaching and reducing professional and emotional stress; including understanding the new curriculum they so much hate at the expense of their own mental health.
If you want me to talk sense into your teachers without motivating them, because I am not a motivational speaker, but a speaker ONLY, you are a phone call away (0773 883 293). I have too much to share with teachers.
You need a speaker who has been there, who has been in all the trenches, who will tell you the truth that will set you free and allow you to think and enjoy both your job and life…for you have no other. I am a speaker, please note; not a motivational speaker, even if I may end up motivating you. Remember Socrates’ famous words: “I cannot tell anybody anything; I can only make them think.”
