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Motivational F****** Speakers

An uncle of mine once presented me with a motivational book in J1. Called 'You can Win' and written by motivational coach Shiv Kera, it was my first encounter with such a book. Initially I chucked it aside, thinking of how my uncle managed to get away with giving me such a cheap present.

But as time drifted and boredom got to me, I dug it out of the dark recesses of my room and started reading it. And for a while I could not stop. It seemed to pinpoint, with rather remarkable accuracy, the mistakes I was making in my life. Somehow, from it I drew inspiration to change my life, to cast aside my reclusive existence and  be more dynamic, more disciplined, more optimistic and more gracious.

And by the time I was done with that book, I tried to get my hands on every other such motivational book out there. Anthony Robbins and Dale Carnegie were my new role models. Somehow, everyday I seemed to be on my way up.

As a boy gets tired of his new toy car after a while, I soon got tired of these books. Partly because while it was fun reading them, it was not so fun carrying out everything they said. It was hard to be disciplined when you were surrounded by TV and Facebook, almost impossible to be optimistic when you had to book in to camp the coming Sunday, frustrating to be gracious when the things you were supposed to be gracious for, such as a world class university education, just seemed to make my life extremely miserable with the endless load of work, and unrealistic to be only concerned about one's own performance when everyone else seemed to be doing better.

And after a while, as the status of a friend of mine once stated, I concluded,

Motivational f****** speakers.

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