Drive

Back in 1965, Michael Collins was one of the few chosen test pilots that were being trained by NASA to become astronauts. The tasks these people had to do each day were wide-ranging. They might start their day sitting for hours in a simulator in an uncomfortable position, going through the same sequence of steps over and over again until they get them exactly right.

They might then move on the rotating machine that gave them the experience of 10 Gs worth of force (10 times the pull of the earth). A force so strong that if you ever breathed out too much, it would be impossible to fill up your lungs again.

And training wasn’t all physical, they had to undergo classes for mathematics, physics, and the complicated orbital mechanics. They had to memorize a lot of stuff, like the positioning of the stars in the sky, and how to use that to navigate while in space.

And yet these people showed up each day and did it all. This was my takeaway when I finished reading Micael Collin’s autobiography yesterday. Here I am complaining about my work where I have to type stuff in the computer to make an app or a website look a little bit better. And yet I am reluctant to start each workday and ready to quit by the evening. How the hell did they do it?

Here’s what I think the answer is. Those astronauts, as well as the whole staff at NASA, were driven. They were driven by an enormous goal, which gave them the assurance that all these early mornings and late nights will ultimately pay off. They knew that their contributions mattered, even an intern that might be working on testing one of the 1000s of different screws that go into the spacecraft knew the importance of his job. So he carried that task, even if it was mundane, with great concentration and discipline.

That’s not the case with most of us. At least for me, I can say that I don’t have any such drive right now, pushing me to get up every morning. And I don’t think I know anyone that does. For most corporate cubicle dwellers, the drive might merely be to make it through to the next paycheck. For some, it is to make it to the next Friday, so that you can enjoy a weekend. That is a very sad truth, but it is what it is.

The thing is, even if you are not motivated currently in your life, you must remember sometime in the past when you were. I can think of my 2 years in Kota when I was preparing for IIT JEE, studying like a mad man with no contact with any of my friends, and for some time just a radio as a source of entertainment. It was hell, and I enjoyed each and every second of it. It gave me great pleasure to fill up a notebook in a day with notes. All of this I was driven, by a goal that mattered greatly to me.

I am sure may you can think of a similar period in your life as well. I want you to spend some time to think about it, remember all the hardships, and your happiness in spite of it. And then hopefully we will be on the same page, confused at what to do next.

I think the only logical step is to find it again. And to get the drive, you need to get the goal. Once you do that, you need to remind yourself of that goal each and every day. Your actions should then follow suit, every one of them taking you a bit closer to the finish line. Each and every day, each and every step would then matter again, just like it used to do before.