What is Motivation Essay Example

"Push yourself and you will succeed." Life gets grueling sometimes and that is okay, but giving up and letting yourself fall apart is not. Life of Pi by Yann Martel and A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson tell the story of people who motivated themselves to push through wearying times full of hope and courage. The books show the good, the bad, and the ugly of these people's seemingly endless journeys.

In the beginning of each books journeys they speak of motivation and hope. In the Life of Pi while Pi, the main character of the story, is just starting to struggle on his terribly long adventurous trip on a small lifeboat in the Pacific ocean says "If you have the will to live you will." Pi says this because he has an immense amount of faith. Pi knows that if he gives up, then he is going to die hopelessly and alone. Pi trusts in the Lord with all of his heart, which also encourages him to push forward. Pi counts his blessings instead of his problems.

Pi is not the only one with motivation in him. In A Walk in the Woods, before walking the Appalachian trail for tremendous miles, Bill, the main character of the book who decides to walk the trail describes what he sees. "The sun popped out, filling the world with encouraging brightness." Seeing the sun fills Bill with the motivation to complete his goal to walk the Appalachian trail with Katz, his walking partner. Bill and Katz both go through a wild adventure together, breathing in the air of the wilderness. It is hard at first, they are both out of shape for the trip both physically and mentally whether they know it or not and they go through a laborious journey.

It is not always that simple though. People can lose some motivation along the way. While on the lifeboat with a tiger named Richard Parker, Pi wonders "Was there any reward greater than life? Any punishment worse than death?" Showing everyone is brought into this world to grow, learn, work, do some fun things in-between, and then to lay in our deathbed, a sad thought. People do not appreciate life as much as they should, nobody knows when something life threatening will happen.

Sometimes it's not a person themselves making the motivation go away, sometimes it's somebody else's words. In A Walk in the Woods, when Bill and Katz are about to hike the toughest part of the trail the book explains what a hiker told a National geographic reporter. The hiker told the reporter that part of the trail is "where boots go to die." The hiker saying that shows how complicated it is to hike without hard, physical, work. Even with those components the hike is still one that will kill the motivation. At the end of the book Bill and Katz lose each other which is when they decide to stop walking the trail and go home. They still realize they walked plenty. They still did what others could not even imagine doing.

In the outcome each grew in strength and knowledge from teaching themselves how to cope with their situations. All taught themselves how to use the resources they had around them, even if it was not much. They showed that people's mindset determines their outcome. Pi had enough faith in himself and Bill and Katz had enough faith to put in each other.

Everything turned out alright. At the end of Life of Pi ,a reporter recalls Pi being "Very thin, very tough, very bright." Even after everything thrown in Pi's direction he still fought for his life. This book shows how powerful the human mind is and how hard it fights to keep us sane. Pi was put in a situation that makes the reader think that he will not survive, but Pi was also put in situations leading up to that point and he still managed to make it.

People teach themselves lessons after going through hard times. At the end of A Walk in the Woods, Bill talks about how he "Found patience and fortitude" that he never knew he had. Bill's mind was strong and his attitude remained determined. A quote that simply describes this book is one said by the poet Henry David Thoreau, "I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees." This quote describes personal growth through tough times. People come out stronger than when they went into their situations.

In the end, there is a load of lessons these books can teach for the real word. "If it doesn't challenge you, it will not change you." The books also teach people to "challenge their limits" instead of "limiting their challenges." The people in these books minds sparked with motivation like fireworks in the sky. Switching mentality to "I'm learning and living" instead of "im struggling and hopeless" Motivation is the key to success.