Short Motivational Stories Volume 1

By Sohailuddin Alavi

In modern days, flood of “Clichés” have overarched our perceptions and attitudes so much so that our wisdom and intellect are sometimes altered for worse. Many times this puts our brains in self-denial we begin to live in a world of assumptions and perceptions, far away from realities.

In this series of Short Motivation Stories, I help you reflect on your life from a fresh angle; some may have never explored it and some may have buried it in the lost and found compartment of their brains. It contains short stories on a collage of misnomers that abound our intellect and wisdom. It will release your brain power to attain newer heights of intellect and wisdom and will give you rationality that you need to work at par-excellence.

Have a happy reading!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Feroz Ali Meghaney
• Release date: Nov 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463761410

Sohailuddin Alavi

Management Consultant, Trainer, Writer and Educationist Sohailuddin Alavi is the author of 04 books about leadership & motivation, ethics in work place, organization behavior, and decision making. He regularly writes professional articles for 03 professional magazines. He is founder of The Entrepreneurship Learning Centre in Karachi, Pakistan. He is an enthusiast social reformer. By qualification, he is a professionally qualified Banker.

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Allah the most Merciful and Beneficent

Should I love not my creator, who loves me more than anyone?

It is our creator’s love to us that he created us.

If I did not exist, I would have missed out all the opportunities of this life and lifer hereafter.

If I were not created, I would have not existed.

Introduction

Motivation is so very important to keep us all going. However, it often leads to stressful situations, dissatisfaction, dysfunctional competition and last but not the least compromise on principles. This is so because we have developed a stereotype perspective on our motivation: our needs. In this short analysis I have attempted to discuss some pertinent underlying variables that cause the stated situation. I have also discussed alternate basis of motivation.

Motivation is double edged: It makes or breaks performance (behaviors). Allah warns in the Noble Quran, Those who follow their lust (impulse) are the followers of Satan. Needs; aspirations; goals; targets; excitement; following; perfectionism; fear of losing; and, last but not the least sense of responsibility are a few significant sources of motivation.

On the positive side, motivation provides much needed energy and enthusiasm to face challenges to attain success. Prophet Muhammad PBUH once said, Those whose today is no better than yesterday is doomed. Motivation makes us work to improve our today over yesterday and tomorrow even better than today. On the negative side, one needs to harness his or her motivation before it hijacks oneself. One may fall prey to his or her motivation so much so that s/he develops a tunnel view ignoring all other aspects in life. Put it differently, one may be controlled by the motivation so much so that s/he becomes ready to pay any price, be it self esteem, moral principles, and even future prospects over today.

Though motivation is essential it cannot and does compensate the need for competence and efforts in right directions. A friend once said, my exam results will tell how much I studied - Dreams don’t come true on their own. Furthermore without vision, virtues and principles motivation becomes uncontrolled. Lastly, but most importantly, subordinating one’s motivation to Allah Al-Mighty decision is the key to success. Allah says, "One is your wish and one is Allah’s decision. If you embrace Allah’s decision (in a positive perspective) then Allah will give you what you wished. If you do not accept Allah’s decision then Allah will not decree what you wished (no matter how much you struggle for it). Thus paying gratitude to Allah for His countless blessings and praying to Him with confidence is a pre-requisite to positive motivation.

The Flip Side of Motivation

In simple words, we can define motivation as the Reason of acting or not acting upon in a given situation. In a conventional perspective, our needs & expectations provide us the reason to act or not to act. It works like this; needs cause stress, which in turn leads to a particular action or inaction. Needs are basically