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The Motivating Force That Drives You
Today I want to talk about Motivation. I have a few questions first. What motivates you to do what you do? Is your motivation strong enough to keep you going? What drives you to persist? What fuels your desires
?
Motivation is defined as a stimulus, influence, incentive or drive. Motivation is that thing that keeps you going, and going, and going, just like the Energizer Bunny. Motivation is the thing that drives you.
Proverbs 16:26 says The person who labors, labors for himself, for his hungry mouth drives him on.
When a man is hungry he will do anything to satisfy that hunger. Those hunger pangs are the motivating factor that drives him to find food. A hungry man knows that if he doesn’t eat, eventually he will die. Now is that motivation or what?
In business you must have a motivating factor or factors that drive you to be successful. If not, you will struggle continuously. Not only should you have these things that drive you, you must use them daily as a reminder of what needs to be done to be successful.
When finding your motivating factors there are two approaches you can take. You can take the negative approach or the positive approach. An example of the negative approach is looking at all of the bad things that can happen to you if you don’t persist and make things happen. Some negative things are:
- Working for someone else
- Always lacking money
- Dealing with rush hour traffic
- Not having freedom to manage your own time
These are the types of things that are so bad that you don’t want to experience them. The thought of going through these things makes you work hard to accomplish your goals.
The positive approach would be to look at the benefits of doing what needs to be done to get rewarded. Some positive things are:
- Financial freedom
- Total control of your schedule (freedom)
- Working for yourself
- More time with the family
When you take the positive approach, it’s all about accomplishing your goals to obtain pleasure. You will do what you need to do for gratification.
Regardless of what approach you use to motivate yourself, you MUST be persistent in going for the gold. You MUST work hard everyday to achieve your goals. You MUST not take no for an answer. You MUST keep your eyes focused on the end result and not your present circumstance.
CONSISTENCY is the key.
For me, I have a number of motivating factors I use to motivate me but you must find your own.
So find out what truly motivates you (negative or positive) and use it! Find out what feeds your fuel and keep it moving forward.
To YOUR Success,
Rodney,
I was just discussing the topic of motivation with a friend yesterday. She was asking me how I stay motivated as a solo-preneur who is blazing my own trail. I told her that motivation can sometimes be a luxury that not everyone can afford. What I meant was that there will be days when you will get up and it’s not fun anymore. Running a business on your own sounds sexy and glamorous, but there are days when it’s a slog, and you long for those days when you could take long lunches on a Friday afternoon and stroll back to your desk.
But what drives me to succeed–to stick with it is that I love my work, I love the freedom, and most of all I am proud of the example that I am setting for my three daughters. I am now a single mom, but I am providing a good life for them without depending on a man. I have financial and creative freedom and I am blessed beyond measure.
Evelyn,
Good for you. I’m proud of what you’re doing and I’m sure your daughters are too. Stay motivated and continue to be a shining example for your daughters.
Rodney
Great post Rodney.
Motivation is truly the heart of self improvement and
in most cases, personal development.
I like to employ the A, B, C’s in terms of my motivation.
A. Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places.
B. Believe in yourself and in what you can do
C. Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from
determination. To be able to fully understand this, one should feel the
sun from both sides.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge Rodney.
Be humble, stay aggressive my friend,
Kevin Tyler Smith
Promethean Life
Thanks Kevin,
I love the A-B-C’s you incorporate especially the part about avoiding negative people, things and places. That can certainly drain and keep you from being motivated to do what it is you set out to do.
Hi Rodney,
excellent article. I would say that we are able to develop the positive approach starting with negative approach. I think most people get stuck in transforming their “hates” into “loves”. On the other hand, fear nr. 1 among people is fear of public humiliation – before fear of death. If public humiliation is worse than death, no wonder that the caveman-motivation doesn’t work anymore. The system of values seems to be in disorder. Well, I’m talking from experience because I used (past tense, good luck !) to fear going broke more than dying. Keep the good stuff coming.
Cheers
Oliver
Hi Rodney,
I motivate myself everyday with positive thinking. I find that you always got to be motivated to move forward and achieve what you want in life. Once you achieve the right mindset, it’s really hard to look back, nothing will stop you and that’s exactly what I’m experiencing right now.
Thanks for sharing this great post
Oliver,
Thanks for the compliment. I agree, I think most people start with the negative and that moves them to the positive because they get a taste of it and it feels good and then motivates them.
Hey Katherine,
You are right. Your mindset will carry you a long way in staying motivated.
Hi Rodney, I just read your article about motivation. I have been wrestling with being motivated to decide on what I want to write a blog on. You are helping me to go forward. Thanks much.