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The Motivated Mind: How to Get What You Want from Life
Do you make New Year resolutions? Almost everyone does, because we want to achieve positive personal change. But did you know that most resolutions are repeated five years in a row, and that the vast majority are broken by June. Have you ever dieted? Yet if diets work, why do we need so many, and new ones all the time? The evidence shows that we persist in buying diet books and following fitness fads because we want to believe the new approach will be the one that works...Today, we seem to be obsessed with advantage and disadvantage, fairness and the level playing field, without realizing that in life, the ability to overcome obstacles is a key part of any success strategy - as is our inner drive and motivation. In The Motivated Mind, award-winning author and psychiatrist Dr Raj Persaud investigates the latest research on this fascinating subject - and he comes to some surprising conclusions. Complete with fascinating case studies, The Motivated Mind offers fresh & inspiring insights into understanding the key to success - the key to fulfilling your dream.
503 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
11 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 20, 2013
After trudging through a third of Dr Raj Persaud’s book The Motivated Mind I realised how utterly unmotivated I was to finish it.
There are some good elements to it, some interesting information; the latest psychological research etc but unfortunately it’s buried in the mountains of turgid text concerning this or that experiment or such and such research paper. The book is just too long at 500 pages. This includes 68 pages of references (as an indication of just how much he references scientific research papers). The motivated or unmotivated mind attempting to get through it all just glazes over. And I tried hard I really did.
I think he just wanted to get everything in and didn’t stop to allow his inner editor to curtail his enthusiasm- come to think of it that’s what his publishing editor is for. But even though the book is long there is so much research included that he has to treat some of it in a superficial manner, skating over topics- introducing some theory only to move onto something else in the next paragraph. (For example he introduces ‘ABC’ Antecedent Behaviour Consequence, in the next paragraph he’s moved on pp147). The overall feeling is of being bombarded with far too many superficially explained ideas.
I suppose the major problem is that it’s not clear what this book is trying to do. On the one hand it felt like a serious primer in the up to date research on motivation. On the other it was trying to be a popular self-help book. So you have reams of the dense scientific references and then bisecting any one chapter you have a frivolous self-evaluation questionnaire; you know the stuff: answer 5 or 6 multiple choice questions and tot up the points to reveal your character flaws- something that might grace the pages of ‘Woman’s Own’. These questionnaires and the bullet point checklists (e.g.: ‘How to make good decisions’) seemed to jar against the main bulk of the text, as if another book had suddenly intruded. And perhaps this was the case- I now DO have a vision of his publishing editor explaining to Dr Persuad that if his serious book didn’t look sufficiently like a self-help book no one would buy it! This tendency to confuse with incompatible juxtaposition is doubly strange, not to say schizophrenic, in the chapter entitled ‘Why Will-Power doesn’t exist’ because the questionnaire is designed to test your will-power! I was baffled as to what to believe on this point. The conclusion of the chapter is: ‘the best motivational strategy is to assume that will-power doesn’t exist ‘ (pp102) but later we read that ‘all human behaviour is really an exercise of will.’ (pp141-2). Well, which is it to be?
Dr Persaud’s writing is pedestrian, workmanlike, sometimes clumsy; never very elegant. Here’s an example: ‘Another important factor is whether situational goals were concordant with individual’s internal strivings.’ (pp149). In the end the sheer volume of stuff to get through in the cause of extracting any point that he might have been driving towards bears down on the reader. I gave up.
There are some good elements to it, some interesting information; the latest psychological research etc but unfortunately it’s buried in the mountains of turgid text concerning this or that experiment or such and such research paper. The book is just too long at 500 pages. This includes 68 pages of references (as an indication of just how much he references scientific research papers). The motivated or unmotivated mind attempting to get through it all just glazes over. And I tried hard I really did.
I think he just wanted to get everything in and didn’t stop to allow his inner editor to curtail his enthusiasm- come to think of it that’s what his publishing editor is for. But even though the book is long there is so much research included that he has to treat some of it in a superficial manner, skating over topics- introducing some theory only to move onto something else in the next paragraph. (For example he introduces ‘ABC’ Antecedent Behaviour Consequence, in the next paragraph he’s moved on pp147). The overall feeling is of being bombarded with far too many superficially explained ideas.
I suppose the major problem is that it’s not clear what this book is trying to do. On the one hand it felt like a serious primer in the up to date research on motivation. On the other it was trying to be a popular self-help book. So you have reams of the dense scientific references and then bisecting any one chapter you have a frivolous self-evaluation questionnaire; you know the stuff: answer 5 or 6 multiple choice questions and tot up the points to reveal your character flaws- something that might grace the pages of ‘Woman’s Own’. These questionnaires and the bullet point checklists (e.g.: ‘How to make good decisions’) seemed to jar against the main bulk of the text, as if another book had suddenly intruded. And perhaps this was the case- I now DO have a vision of his publishing editor explaining to Dr Persuad that if his serious book didn’t look sufficiently like a self-help book no one would buy it! This tendency to confuse with incompatible juxtaposition is doubly strange, not to say schizophrenic, in the chapter entitled ‘Why Will-Power doesn’t exist’ because the questionnaire is designed to test your will-power! I was baffled as to what to believe on this point. The conclusion of the chapter is: ‘the best motivational strategy is to assume that will-power doesn’t exist ‘ (pp102) but later we read that ‘all human behaviour is really an exercise of will.’ (pp141-2). Well, which is it to be?
Dr Persaud’s writing is pedestrian, workmanlike, sometimes clumsy; never very elegant. Here’s an example: ‘Another important factor is whether situational goals were concordant with individual’s internal strivings.’ (pp149). In the end the sheer volume of stuff to get through in the cause of extracting any point that he might have been driving towards bears down on the reader. I gave up.
January 11, 2018
This book came and went on the good/ bad scale. There was heaps that was very interesting. But heaps that wasn’t.
Throughout the book you felt as if Persaud repeated himself. I think the book was just written like an essay with the whole statement explain example thing going on. Often though because of how obviously intellectual Persaud is you needed the repetition just so you understood what he meant clearly.
I would say this book has so many ideas in it. So many details of experiments, theories and things that have beeb done, that actually for a psych student or something this would be a great book to get a fairly thorough overview of many things.
As I read through I felt like I was nodding my head in agreement heaps like yeah thats about right. And i think hes certainly onto something here and theres tons of useful stuff in here.
I would say this book is frustrating not only because of the repetitions and the language use and the bad attempts at humour but also because as I read it seemed like Persaud was writing for other Doctors, he probably was writing what he knew which is the Doctoring profession so thats why his examples came from there, and often times he seemed sexist in that he wrote for males. In one section he is talking about differences in males and females and he gives ideas for men to get ahead based on genetics, hormones etc but fails to do the same for females and even alludes to the idea that women shouldn’t be as driven or motivated as men.
I also hated the last 2 chapters. The last actual chapter was just boring and seemed completely pointless to me. And the epilogue talked about suicide from a perspective that not only was it ok but that it should be applauded or something. It hardly if at all stated that suicide shouldn’t be a thing people do. Firstly i thought why is this even in the book at all? And secondly I thought this is terrible like hes actively encouraging people to end their lives. Absolutely LOATHED this chapter.
But enjoyed a lot of the rest of the book.
Throughout the book you felt as if Persaud repeated himself. I think the book was just written like an essay with the whole statement explain example thing going on. Often though because of how obviously intellectual Persaud is you needed the repetition just so you understood what he meant clearly.
I would say this book has so many ideas in it. So many details of experiments, theories and things that have beeb done, that actually for a psych student or something this would be a great book to get a fairly thorough overview of many things.
As I read through I felt like I was nodding my head in agreement heaps like yeah thats about right. And i think hes certainly onto something here and theres tons of useful stuff in here.
I would say this book is frustrating not only because of the repetitions and the language use and the bad attempts at humour but also because as I read it seemed like Persaud was writing for other Doctors, he probably was writing what he knew which is the Doctoring profession so thats why his examples came from there, and often times he seemed sexist in that he wrote for males. In one section he is talking about differences in males and females and he gives ideas for men to get ahead based on genetics, hormones etc but fails to do the same for females and even alludes to the idea that women shouldn’t be as driven or motivated as men.
I also hated the last 2 chapters. The last actual chapter was just boring and seemed completely pointless to me. And the epilogue talked about suicide from a perspective that not only was it ok but that it should be applauded or something. It hardly if at all stated that suicide shouldn’t be a thing people do. Firstly i thought why is this even in the book at all? And secondly I thought this is terrible like hes actively encouraging people to end their lives. Absolutely LOATHED this chapter.
But enjoyed a lot of the rest of the book.
September 2, 2020
OK so I picked up a secondhand copy of this a while ago in the excellent bookshop in Watchet. Looked like an interesting read. This summer I read it on holiday. I'm not sure what to say about The Motivated Mind beyond the obvious - Raj Persaud has a very active mind! Maybe this has overwhelmed his writing. Random themes rush in like overpowering waves, crashing into the flow of what has come before. Some sections were incredibly interesting, others less so and seeming unrelated to what had gone before. Towards the end we were offered an existentialist worldview with reference to the Groundhog Day movie. Soon after, this was followed by a discussion on suicide attempts. There's no such thing as will power, we are told and yet I willed myself to finish this book. I lost track of the overall theme, but there were some passages worth discovering.
December 12, 2023
Very comprehensive book with a lot of detail
Few keys for me ;
Internals (best) accept responsibility for their life, externals blame the world for their lives
Materially motivated people never achieve fulfilment
How we deal with setbacks determines success in life
Good tips on greater self esteem
Remember all the problems you have managed to avoid in your life that others have to deal with
Small improvements every day important
For a very large book (almost 500 pages) I thought I would have learned more about the "motivated mind"
Few keys for me ;
Internals (best) accept responsibility for their life, externals blame the world for their lives
Materially motivated people never achieve fulfilment
How we deal with setbacks determines success in life
Good tips on greater self esteem
Remember all the problems you have managed to avoid in your life that others have to deal with
Small improvements every day important
For a very large book (almost 500 pages) I thought I would have learned more about the "motivated mind"
January 6, 2019
I enjoyed Dr Persauds style of writing, often felt chatty and that he was in the room with you. What I didn't like about the book was the fact it wasn't really a book on how to motivate yourself as much as I wanted it to be - it was more a book about what it means to be motivated and why we have issues with it. Nevertheless an interesting read (especially liked the last chapter/epilogue) and will search for more books he has written to put on my 'to read' list.
July 31, 2017
interesting data but i just couldnt get into this book. Totally uninspiring.
December 24, 2007
Anything is possible - depending on what you will risk
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews