Why I have No Motivation in Life

Hi, today I want to talk about why I don't

really have much motivation in life. Now

unfortunately, although I would like to

pretend that I'm this ambitious guy who

gets out of bed and has all these plans

and all these goals he wants to achieve

and has a way of achieving these goals

that he's planned ahead in time, but to be

honest, I can't really say that I am that

kind of person. I get out of bed and I

don't know what to do. I spend all day

just trying to think, what can I do to

improve my life? And I end up not doing

anything and just start playing Rainbow

Six. So I started wondering to myself,

how come I have such little motivation?

How come I've got such little drive?

And why don't I really want to do anything

that could possibly improve my life? And I

think one of the reasons is because

there's not a lot to improve on when I

think about my life. I live in a great

place. I've got a really nice house to

live in. Massive garden. I've got

everything I want. I've got my computer,

I've got my iPhone, I've got my iPad,

I've got my Oculus Quest 2. I've got all

these little gadgets and games that quite

satisfy me quite a lot, and I don't really

feel like there's anything more I would

want. I guess I wouldn't mind having a

laptop for when I go traveling, but I'll

buy that later when I really need to buy

it. I don't really see myself traveling

anytime too soon, so I don't have to rush

out and get the latest MacBook now when I

just get it later in the year when it

comes down in price a bit. Point is, it's

just really hard to feel motivated to do

anything when you already have everything

you want and there's not really any real

need to do anything. I don't really have

to do anything, and I'm not going to go

homeless, and I'm not going to starve

because I always have my house. There's

always going to be food in the fridge,

and I'm never going to get to a point

where I have such little money, I can't

even afford to buy food. I'm in a

fortunate position in life where I don't

really have to worry about basic things

like shelter and food and water. A lot of

people in the world, they do have to worry

about these things because they're unlucky

and they were born into poverty or they

live in a poor, dangerous country and they

don't have the luxury of being able to

wake up in a $1 million mansion in the

English countryside. And you might be

thinking, well, Daniel, your life is— if

it's so great, then what are you worrying

about? What are you moaning about? Why are

you always so gloomy and depressed and you

seem like you hate everything? I think

some of the most hardworking people are

usually people who have very hard lives

and they have to go out and work and find

ways of making money and learn new skills

to make more money. Otherwise, they won't

have a place to live. They won't be able

to put food on the table. They won't have

basic things that you need in life like

clothing. And they'll just become like a

homeless man, or even worse, they might

get eaten by a tiger if you're like an

Indian person who lives in the jungle.

You can't really just sit around all day

playing Rainbow Six. You need to go and do

stuff. And I think I don't really have

that in life. I don't really have this

urgency of, oh crap, I really have to get

out of bed and learn a new skill so I can

make more money, or else, or else the

roof's gonna collapse and I'm gonna starve

and I'm gonna get eaten by tigers in the

jungle. I'm never gonna have to worry

about that. So I don't have this fire

burning me from under my feet, you know,

like really giving me a kick up the

backside, telling me that, oh crap, I

actually do have to learn some stuff and

try and find out how to make more money,

or else XX and YY is gonna happen. I think

I should feel fortunate that I don't have

to worry about that happening. It's

probably not gonna happen. But sometimes I

do kind of wonder what it feels like to

Well, I don't really have to wonder. I did

experience what it felt like when I was

living in Japan. I barely had any money

and I had to go and get a job. I had to go

and wake up at 5 AM in the morning, get on

the train, and work at Lawson's in Tokyo 5

days a week. And I hated it, but at the

same time, it kind of gave me this

satisfaction of feeling like I'm

supporting myself and I'm doing stuff that

I have to do or else I won't be able to

pay rent and buy food. My point is, I

think most human beings work hard either

because they don't have a choice and they

have a very good incentive to work hard.

I don't really have many incentives to

work hard or try and learn how to make

more money when I already have everything

and everything's provided for me. So for

example, if you were going to compare 2

people, which one do you think is going to

be more motivated in life? Person A, who

lives in the jungle and barely has enough

food to feed himself, and he's always in

danger, and he doesn't have a safe place

to live. Or Person B, who lives in a

castle where food keeps magically

appearing in the fridge, and everything's

safe, and there's nothing to worry about,

and you can just lie around all day

basically staring at the sky, watching the

clouds go by, and Nothing bad will happen.

Life will just go on as it usually does

for you. So out of those 2 people, Person

A or Person B, which one do you think is

going to be more motivated? And which one

do you think I am? I'll give you 2 seconds

to answer those questions.

Yeah, I thought so. Person B is who I am.

And I think in my early 20s, one of the

reasons why I really enjoyed going to

Japan and why it seemed so interesting to

me wasn't just because of the J-girls,

but it was also because my safety net was

kind of taken away from me. I still had

the safety net, which was my family and my

home, but it was all the way on the other

side of the world in England, and it was

very far away. When I was in Japan, I felt

like I had to feel motivated to be

able to pay for rent and to be able to pay

for food. I couldn't just sit around all

day not doing anything. I had to do stuff.

And even though that kind of sucked,

because sometimes I do just like sitting

around all day doing nothing, there was

also like a nice challenging feeling to

it. There was this satisfying feeling of

having goals, having tasks I had to

complete. And then after I've completed

the tasks, I got to reward myself by

having a tasty meal or being able to enjoy

my bed in the warm room in the guest house

Instead of having to— I don't know, I

don't think things would ever get so bad

where I would have to sleep on the street,

but you never know, it could have if I had

the same lack of motivation that I have

now back then. If I had— if I was the same

back then in Japan, I probably would have

ended up becoming homeless and not even

being able to afford the guest house. I

don't know if you've ever played this

video game called The Sims. I played The

Sims 1 and I think The Sims 2, but after

Sims 2, I kind of lost interest in the

game. But the game was really fun in the

beginning when you first make your Sim and

you've only got a couple hundred dollars

or simoleons. That's what the currency

used to be called. You only had a couple

hundred, maybe 500 simoleons, and you

only had enough money to build a very,

very basic house. And you could only

afford very basic things like a telephone,

a bed, a fridge, and a toilet. And then

you had to go and get a job and make sure

the Sim keeps going to the job and keeps

bringing money back home so you could

upgrade the house and buy new things and

keep the fridge stocked. And that felt

really satisfying. The game starts to get

boring when you get promoted in your job

and you start making loads of money and

you've got all the basic stuff and you

don't really know what to do with all your

extra money and just end up buying a load

of rubbish that you don't actually need.

You keep making the house bigger and

bigger. That's when the game starts to get

boring. The same thing also happens in

GTA. It's kind of— it's more fun and

challenging when you don't have much money

and you have to be careful and you don't

really have many resources. But then you

do stuff, stupid stuff, like you enter in

the cheat codes for unlimited money. Or

you enter the cheat codes where you can

just magically spawn a helicopter out of

nowhere. The game just becomes very, very

boring when you remove all the challenges

and you've got infinite resources. And

yeah, maybe the first 10 minutes is really

fun, just spawning a helicopter or a tank

and just going on a rampage and being

invincible and not having to worry

about any negative things that happen.

But after 10 minutes it gets really

boring. It's just kind of weird when I

compare my early 30s to my early 20s.

So now I'm in my early 30s and I've got

money. I've got enough money to buy what I

want and do what I want without having to

work for it, without having to get a job

to carry on bringing money in. And I've

got the experience and the knowledge to be

able to do the things that I wanted to do

or want to do. When I was in my early 20s,

everything was new. Going to Japan,

living in Japan was all brand new. I

didn't know anything about anything. It

all seemed kind of scary, and I barely had

any money. I couldn't afford to buy fancy

phones or fancy cameras or just waste

money on p-girls. I had to live in a

crappy guest house that cost maybe $400 a

month. I had to share a kitchen and a

shower with 100 strangers in a guest

house. I couldn't afford to get direct

flights, you know, I had to get a layover

in Beijing or somewhere like, uh,

Charles de Gaulle. I had to get the

transfer flights because it was cheaper.

And even though it seems like life was

harder in my early 20s, I definitely

feel like life was more exciting more

challenging, more rewarding, and less

boring than it is now. Now I just

feel so bored.