History Main / Dismotivation

* Shikamaru of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''. [[CatchPhrase What a drag.]] He gets promoted anyway, in large part ''because'' he wisely chose to give up, and is the first in his class to become a Chunin.

* Shirley, the title character of ''LightNovel/EvenThoughImAFormerNobleAndSingleMother'' openly refuses advancement past B-rank in the adventurer's guild because if she does advance, she'd be compelled, by law, to abandon her daughters and go off chasing whatever "emergency" the guild tells her to. The guild master has the gall to be shocked and confused at this, and yells at his secretary Yukina because the poor girl can't get Shirley to even consider it.

* In ''LightNovel/MyYouthRomanticComedyIsWrongAsIExpected'', this trope fits [[TheCynic Hachiman]] to a T. Among the usual reasons, the main one being to NeverBeHurtAgain, he has an uncommon but somewhat logical argument. Hachiman, after being accused by Yukino of running away because of his dismotivation, makes his point of view clear:

** Best exemplified when he takes a a jar of lotion into the bathroom, closes the door, and then says, "Eh. Why bother?"

** Best exemplified when he takes a [[ADateWithRosiePalms a jar of lotion into the bathroom]], closes the door, and then says, "Eh. Why bother?"

* Shirley, the title character of ''LightNovel/EvenThoughImAFormerNobleAndSingleMother'' openly refuses advancement past B-rank in the adventurer's guild because if she does advance, she'd be compelled, by law, to abandon her daughters and go off chasing whatever "emergency" the guild tells her to. The guild master has the gall to be shocked and confused at this, and yells at his secretary Yukina because the poor girl can't get Shirley to even consider it.

* Kyon in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', which more than anything makes up who he is and how he relates to the rest of the SOS Brigade. He's also cynical and [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]]. He often acts dumb because he doesn't care about anything. Most likely also the reason why he sucks at school, despite being ''very'' knowledgeable and aware of other people's intentions. He shows how an AlmightyJanitor looks like as a kid. After ''Disappearance'' he decides to act more to help his friends, especially Nagato, but still hates acting on anyone else's behalf.
* Unlike the rest of the Baka Rangers in ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', Yue is actually one of the most intelligent people in the class. However, after the death of her grandfather or something like that, she stopped studying or trying at all in order to become the resident LittleMissSnarker. [[spoiler:When her memory gets wiped, she starts working hard again and then takes about six levels in badass by taking down a griffin dragon.]]
* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'': In one episode, Mao tells the story of how she met Sosuke and Kurz when the latter two were new recruits. Neither of them trusted the shadowy Mithril too much at the start and so intentionally sabotaged themselves, Sosuke using this trope (and claiming that any superior performance was a fluke). When a real situation came up, he was forced to drop the act, which showed his incredible skills and got him recruited (but also proved Mithril's trustworthiness, making everything work out).
* ''Literature/{{Hyouka}}'': Houtarou has two rules he lives his life by: "One: Never do anything you don't have to. Two: If you have to do something, do it quickly." [[spoiler:Satoshi]] is also an example. [[spoiler:He's content with being a JackOfAllTrades, MasterOfNone because he realizes that there's AlwaysSomeoneBetter namely Houtarou.]]

* In ''LightNovel/MyYouthRomanticComedyIsWrongAsIExpected'', this trope fits [[TheCynic Hachiman]] to a T. Among the usual reasons, the main one being to NeverBeHurtAgain, he has an uncommon but somewhat logical argument. Hachiman, after being accused by Yukino of running away because of his dismotivation, makes his point of view clear:
-->'''Hachiman:''' We only change to avoid the current situation. The true meaning of not running away is planting your feet firmly in the ground and doing the best you can with your present. Who's running away now? Why can't you just accept who you are and were?
** This gets [[DeconstructedTrope flipped on its head later on, though]]. Hachiman's stubborn refusal to change his ways or his attitude begins to strain his relationships with the people he's close to, and it takes nearly losing them forever for him to finally admit that he ''does'' want to change, but has no idea how to do so.

** This gets flipped on its head later on though. Hachiman's stubborn refusal to change his ways or his attitude begins to strain his relationships with the people he's close to, and it takes nearly losing them forever for him to finally admit that he ''does'' want to change, but has no idea how to do so.

* In ''LightNovel/MyTeenRomanticComedySnafu:'' this trope fits Hachiman to a T. Among the usual reasons, for example he doesn't want to be hurt again, he has an uncommon but somewhat logical argument. Hachiman, after being accused by Yukino of running away because of his dismotivation, makes his point of view clear:
-->We only change to avoid the current situation. The true meaning of not running away is planting your feet firmly in the ground and doing the best you can with your present. Who's running away now? Why can't you just accept who you are and were?

* When combined with a SelfFulfillingProphecy, this creates a rather interesting sociological phenomenon. Namely, someone thinks that they'll be bad at something (painting, getting a promotion, carrying on a conversation, etc). So they actively avoid doing it, thus ensuring that they'll be bad at it. This can even extend so far as to putting more effort into avoiding the perceived failure than it would have taken to learn the skill or succeed at the task -- put simply, if they'd have put the same amount of effort into doing the task as they did in trying to avoid doing it, they'd have spectacularly succeed. It's a common way for a person who has self-esteem issues and/or high expectancies concerning their work to preserve their self-esteem by voluntarily (but often unconsciously) failing at a task. The idea can be summed up as: "If I try hard but fail, I must face my failure and I will suffer. Though if I don't even try, there is no proof that I cannot succeed, only that I didn't try to succeed." This is referred to as avoidance strategy or avoidance coping, and it's generally a bad way to deal with a problem. More often than not, confronting a problem is the only way to effectively reduce the stress it causes.

* Every HighSchool students has at least heard of the term "senioritis". Basically, by their final semesters, a high school senior will likely have all the credits they need to graduate and has been accepted to a college. This results in the attitude of "why do I need to do any more work?" and slacking as a result. Particularly bad cases of this have resulted in the subjects having their college acceptances revoked when their grades begin to slip.

* When combined with a SelfFulfillingProphecy, this creates a rather interesting sociological phenomenon. Namely, someone thinks that they'll be bad at something (painting, getting a promotion, carrying on a conversation...anything, really), so they actively avoid doing it, thus ensuring that they'll be bad at it. This can even extend so far as to putting more effort into avoiding the perceived failure than it would have taken to learn the skill or succeed at the task, or, put simply, if they'd have put the same amount of effort into actually doing the task as they did in trying to avoid doing it, they'd spectacularly succeed.
** It is sometimes referred to as "Avoidance Strategy", and is a common way for a person who has self-esteem issues and/or high expectancies concerning his or her work, to preserve his/her self-esteem by voluntarily (but often unconsciously) failing at a task. The idea can be summed up as: "If I try hard but fail, I must face my failure and I will suffer. Though if I don't even try, there is no proof that I cannot succeed, only that I didn't try to." Again, this is often an unconscious process, which doesn't mean that the person is "bad" lazy or lacks any force of will. If anything, the problem is simply self-confidence.

* Calvin of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' says that "I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone's expectations." It's implied that Calvin is [[BrilliantButLazy very intelligent for a six-year-old but finds his school constricting]], as he's shown to [[MrImagination have an extremely active imagination]] and even discusses philosophical concepts with Hobbes. Indeed, Calvin was once shown enthusiastically learning about dinosaurs, because he thinks dinosaurs are cool. He stops when he realizes he's learning something, only to keep going when he remembers that he's choosing to do it rather than having it forced on him. Essentially, Calvin maintains the status quo as much as he can simply because he has no interest in trying to succeed in school due to finding most subjects incomprehensibly boring.

* Wally of ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}''. He was actually based on one of Scott Adams' coworkers who, after realizing that the bottom 10% of employees would be offered extremely generous buy-out packages, went out of his way to get fired. Adams says about this "This wouldn't have been so much fun to watch except this fellow was one of the more brilliant people I've met and he was totally dedicated to this goal." Wally's take on it:

* [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvin]]: "I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep everyone's expectations."
** It's implied that Calvin is ''very'' intelligent for a six-year-old. It's just that he's such an energetic MrImagination that he finds his school (especially his crotchety old teacher, Ms. Wormwood) extremely constricting.

* Every high school graduate has at least heard of the term "senioritis". Basically, by their second and last semester, a high school senior has all the credits they need, has gotten their college acceptances, and is working on their financial aid, so they think "Why do I need to do any more work?" Unfortunately, particularly bad cases of this have resulted in the subjects having their college acceptances revoked.

* If anyone has had a job that you ''really'' didn't like, then chances are you simply did the bare minimum to not get fired.

* Grif of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. He acts lazy and incompetent that Sarge has slowly been giving him less and less to do until he has practically no responsibilities at Red Base... just the way he likes it. At one point he takes Simmons' place as Sarge's second in command, but once he realizes that he'd actually have to do work, he gives it to Donut. It should also be noted that Grif is the only member of the Red Team that Church is wary of, realizing that his dismotivation hides the highest intelligence of the team.

Dismotivation; noun. This is when a character ''actively'' avoids doing anything that might get them ahead in a relationship, on the job, or in life. They feel that working at maintaining the personal [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]] is much better than working at getting somewhere, whether because of risk-aversion, simple laziness, or CelebrityIsOverrated. Of course, they just may be genuinely happy where they are and see no reason to change a life that they are satisfied with.

* Unlike the rest of the Baka Rangers in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', Yue is actually one of the most intelligent people in the class. However, after the death of her grandfather or something like that, she stopped studying or trying at all in order to become the resident LittleMissSnarker. [[spoiler:When her memory gets wiped, she starts working hard again and then takes about six levels in badass by taking down a griffin dragon.]]
* ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'': In one episode, Mao tells the story of how she met Sosuke and Kurz when the latter two were new recruits. Neither of them trusted the shadowy Mithril too much at the start and so intentionally sabotaged themselves, Sosuke using this trope (and claiming that any superior performance was a fluke). When a real situation came up, he was forced to drop the act, which showed his incredible skills and got him recruited (but also proved Mithril's trustworthiness, making everything work out).

* In ''Anime/MaiOtome'', Nao gets good grades, but has a BrilliantButLazy attitude, which includes not wanting to be part of the [[AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil Trias]], which is composed of the top three Pearls. Unfortunately for her, when Akane leaves school due to getting a position as the King of Florence's Otome, [[spoiler:and eloping with Kazuya at the last minute]], Nao takes Akane's position on the Trias [[spoiler:and later becomes the Fourth Column]].

* Wally of ''{{ComicStrip/Dilbert}}''. He was actually based on one of Scott Adams' coworkers who, after realizing that the bottom 10% of employees would be offered extremely generous buy-out packages, went out of his way to get fired. Adams says about this "This wouldn't have been so much fun to watch except this fellow was one of the more brilliant people I've met and he was totally dedicated to this goal." Wally's take on it:

* Twimble's song "The Company Way" in ''Theatre/{{How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying}}'' talks about how he's spent the last 25 years in the mailroom, avoiding promotion to avoid risk.

* When combined with a SelfFulfillingProphecy, this creates a rather interesting sociological phenomenon. Namely, someone thinks that they'll be bad at something (painting, getting a promotion, carrying on a conversation... anything, really), so they actively avoid doing it, thus ensuring that they'll be bad at it. This can even extend so far as to putting more effort into avoiding the perceived failure than it would have taken to learn the skill or succeed at the task; or put simply, if they'd have put the same amount of effort into actually doing the task as they did in trying to avoid doing it, they'd spectacularly succeed.
** It is sometimes referred to as "Avoidance Strategy", and is a common way for a person who has self-esteem issues and/or high expectancies concerning his or her work, to preserve his/her self-esteem by voluntarily (but often unconsciously) failing at a task. The idea can be summed up as "If I try hard but fail, I must face my failure and I will suffer. Though if I don't even try, there is no proof that I cannot succeed, only that I didn't try to." Again, this is often an unconscious process, which doesn't mean that the person is "bad" lazy or lacks any force of will; if anything the problem is simply self-confidence.

* Every high school graduate has at least heard of the term "Senioritis." Basically, by their second and last semester, a high school senior has all the credits they need, has gotten their college acceptances, and is working on their financial aid, so they think "Why do I need to do any more work?" Unfortunately, particularly bad cases of this have resulted in the subjects having their college acceptances revoked.
* Creator/GeorgeOrwell often put off or refused to meet certain authors and public figures he planned on writing about or reviewing their works because he worried he might end up enjoying their company and not have the heart to critique them fairly.

* The protagonist from Literature/HowToLiveSafelyInAScienceFictionalUniverse has literally messed with the hardware in his time-machine so that he can live in the present-indefinite forever, and never have to face the future. Yeah, it's that kind of book.

Dismotivation; noun. This is when a character ''actively'' avoids doing anything that might get them ahead in a relationship, on the job, or in life. They feel that working at maintaining the personal [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]] is much better than working at getting somewhere, whether because of risk-aversion, simple laziness, or CelebrityIsOverrated. Of course, they just may be genuinely happy where they are, and see no reason to change a life that they are satisfied with.

** Ikkaku Madarame refuses to let anyone know he can use [[SuperMode bankai]], because he wants to continue serving under Kenpachi Zaraki.

* Shirley, the title character of ''LightNovel/EvenThoughImAFormerNobleAndSingleMother'' openly refuses advancement past B-rank in the adventurer's guild because if she does advance, she'd be compelled, by law, to abandon her daughters and go off chasing whatever "emergency" the guild tells her to. The guild master has the gall to be shocked and confused at this, and yells at his secretary, Yukina, because the poor girl can't get Shirley to even consider it.

** This gets flipped on it's head later on though. Hachiman's stubborn refusal to change his ways or his attitude begins to strain his relationships with the people he's close to, and it takes nearly losing them forever for him to finally admit that he ''does'' want to change, but has no idea how to do so.
* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Lelouch starts out this way, as a very intelligent young man who gets very average grades and goes through life without accomplishing much. His reasons are twofold: first, it's in his and his sister's best interests to lay low and not draw any attention to themselves, and second, he harbors an intense hatred for the society he's in, and has no desire to succeed in it. This changes when he meets C.C. and gets his geass powers...
* [[{{NEET}} The Matsuno brothers]] in ''Anime/OsomatsuSan''. They've successfully convinced their parents to keep them as dependents for as long as they can, traded spots at a workplace so 5 of them can be lazy at a time, and [[TallPoppySyndrome actively ruined each others' chances at success]] on multiple occassions. Osomatsu's got this as his entire philosophy, reasoning it's better to remain lazy and unmotivated than successful and [[TheFellowshipHasEnded away from his brothers]].

* At the beginning of ''Film/MusicAndLyrics'', former eighties pop star Alex Fletcher, if not exactly happy, is at least comfortably resigned to his life of comfortable relative obscurity as a 'happy has-been'. Curiously, his love interest Sophie also never really demonstrates much desire to improve herself either, but in her case it's more out of a lack of self-confidence: a cruel novel written by a vindictive ex-lover which portrayed her as talentless and derivative and which went on to be a bestseller pretty much destroyed her faith in her ability to write. Both are prompted throughout the movie to get out their respective ruts and start yearning for more things than theme-park gigs and watering plants.

** Victor Tugelbend, protagonist of ''Literature/MovingPictures'', bases his life up until [[CallToAdventure the plot kicks in]] on wanting to remain a student at Unseen University: he studies very hard so as to be able to maintain a perfect 84% average, because that's the only number that allows him to both keep his scholarship and not graduate. Similarly, he's athletic because it's easier to get things done with a fit physique and tries to be well-groomed and well-dressed because it's easier to get dates that way. An example of the "takes more work" version.

** William de Worde, from ''Literature/TheTruth'', got a reputation for keenness at sport while at school because he was always dashing about the field and shouting. His sports masters evidently overlooked the fact that he was invariably doing so, while remaining ''a long way from the ball'' or any possibility of getting caught up in a scrum over it.

* Ivan Vorpatril of the ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' is perhaps the most unambitious, dismotivated character of the series. He steadfastly refuses to make waves, spends much of the series resisting the idea of politically advantageous marriage because he likes casual dating (and casual sex), and generally refuses to put himself forward. Despite this he is quite competent and makes captain even before Miles, and later reveals that [[spoiler:he's the official unofficial SpareToTheThrone because nobody would accept a "mutie" like Miles, so being studiously unimpressive keeps others from wanting him as emperor - an office Ivan never aspired to since his father was murdered in the last succession crisis]].

** Chuck himself at the beginning of the series. He's brilliant and capable, but he works at a big box electronic store in a menial, dead-end job and is reluctant even to compete for a promotion to assistant manger.

* ''Series/JonathanCreek''. With his keen analytical skills and brilliance at coming up with magic tricks, he could have either been a great detective or a great magician if he'd wanted to be; instead, he has to be dragged kicking and screaming into virtually every investigation that Maddy or Carla rope him in to, and he's quite content to hide in the wings and play second fiddle to arrogant tool Adam Klaus, who gets all the fame from his tricks. In Jonathan's case his dismotivation results from a combination of shyness, anti-social reticence and CelebrityIsOverrated feelings.
* Oz of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is smart enough to be tapped by the world's leading software concern, and has no ambitions except getting his guitar chords right. He has incompletes on his schoolwork, didn't go to summer school, and usually gets up late.

--> "Life is painless for the brainless/ why think too hard?/ when its so soothing!"

* Grif of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. He acts lazy and incompetent that Sarge has slowly been giving him less and less to do, until he has practically no responsibilities at Red Base... just the way he likes it. At one point he takes Simmons' place as Sarge's second in command, but once he realizes that he'd actually have to do work, he gives it to Donut. It should also be noted that Grif is the only member of the Red Team that Church is wary of, realizing that his dismotivation hides the highest intelligence of the team.

* Andy of ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill'' actively mocks his little brother Kevin for choosing to focus on school over drinking and partying. Kevin, on his part, is upset that Andy chooses his lazy, layabout lifestyle over trying to get his (very good) cartoons published. One episode took Andy's dismotivation to extremes - he had just lost his job, and spent his days waking up in the afternoon, drinking, and basically wallowing in his own filth.

* Experiment 625 (or Reuben as he is now called) in ''WesternAnimation/StitchTheMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitchTheSeries'' has all the powers of Stitch, but was regarded as a failure by Jumba because he would rather eat and make sandwiches than use his powers. This often makes him a pushover because he's too lazy to put up a fight with Stitch in the few times he's forced to assist Gantu in capturing an activated experiment. It's not until the last movie that ended ''The Series'', ''WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch'', where he finally gets off his butt and helps Lilo save Stitch and defeat an clone army of Stitch's evil twin, Leroy.

** It is sometimes referred to as "Avoidance Strategy", and is a common way for a person who has self esteem issues and/or high expectancies concerning his or her work, to preserve his/her self-esteem by voluntarily (but often unconsciously) failing at a task. The idea can be summed up as "If I try hard but fail, I must face my failure and I will suffer. Though if I don't even try, there is no proof that I cannot succeed, only that I didn't try to." Again, this is often an unconscious process, which doesn't mean that the person is "bad" lazy or lacks any force of will ; if anything the problem is simply self-confidence.

* This is ''enforced'' in Starlight Glimmer's town in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', as said by her [[KnightOfCerebus surprisingly dark]] VillainSong:
-->You can't have a nightmare if you never dream!

** Victor Tugelbend, protagonist of ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', bases his life up until [[CallToAdventure the plot kicks in]] on wanting to remain a student at Unseen University: he studies very hard so as to be able to maintain a perfect 84% average, because that's the only number that allows him to both keep his scholarship and not graduate. Similarly, he's athletic because it's easier to get things done with a fit physique and tries to be well-groomed and well-dressed because it's easier to get dates that way. An example of the "takes more work" version.

** William de Worde, from ''Discworld/TheTruth'', got a reputation for keenness at sport while at school because he was always dashing about the field and shouting. His sports masters evidently overlooked the fact that he was invariably doing so, while remaining ''a long way from the ball'' or any possibility of getting caught up in a scrum over it.

* ''Literature/{{Hyouka}}'': [[{{Protagonist}} Houtarou]] has two rules he lives his life by: "One: Never do anything you don't have to. Two: If you have to do something, do it quickly." [[spoiler:Satoshi]] is also an example. [[spoiler:He's content with being a JackOfAllTrades, MasterOfNone because he realizes that there's AlwaysSomeoneBetter namely Houtarou.]]

%%* Unsurprisingly, ''Film/ClerksII''.

May overlap with BrilliantButLazy. A trait of TheSlacker.

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%%* [[{{NEET}} The Sextuplets]] from ''Anime/OsomatsuSan''.