Keep Your Fire Burning

What is motivation?

I think of motivation as the fire that gets me from point A to point B. Its that fire that gets you up in the morning, and the fire keeps you going throughout the day. It is defined as:

• The psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose.
• The condition of being motivated; “his motivation was at a high level”
• The act of motivating; providing incentive  * from wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• Motivation is the reason or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, these reasons may include basic needs such as food or a desired object, hobbies, goal, state of being, or ideal.  * from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation

What motivates you?

I caught a preview the other day of the new Wolverine movie that is coming out soon, and as with many comic/super hero movies he is pushed by the loss of a love; this tragedy becomes his motivation throughout the movie. I started thinking of all the people out there that fit that same mold.  What would give someone this super hero complex?

Perhaps they are afraid to breakout and require a dire situation to motivate themselves out of their shell. Maybe it takes a serious situation to make them realize what their goals are, or at least which are worth fighting for.

Riley has become a huge motivator in my life since November, but he is not the only motivating factor in my life. I would have to say that my pride is one of my biggest motivators.  I love to look at my list of accomplishments and completed goals, it gives me a great sense of not only accomplishment, but progression as well.

Sean says that knowing there are great things out there within his reach is a great motivator for him.

Do you need major disaster in your life to get your wheels moving?

Forget disaster; I will use goal setting as my best motivator, since it is the best way for me to gauge my results – and results get me going!

I suppose, disaster or not, the important thing is taking that first step toward accomplishing your goals and getting motivated is just the first thing, staying motivated is is the next essential step. Again that to-do list and my goals keep me chugging along. Motivation-tools.com offers these tips to stay motivated:

Set a major goal, but follow a path.
The path has mini goals that go in many directions. When you learn to succeed at mini goals, you will be motivated to challenge grand goals.

Finish what you start.
A half finished project is of no use to anyone. Quitting is a habit. Develop the habit of finishing self-motivated projects.

Socialize with others of similar interest.
Mutual support is motivating. We will develop the attitudes of our five best friends. If they are losers, we will be a loser. If they are winners, we will be a winner. To be a cowboy we must associate with cowboys.

Learn how to learn.
Dependency on others for knowledge supports the habit of procrastination. Man has the ability to learn without instructors. In fact, when we learn the art of self-education we will find, if not create, opportunity to find success beyond our wildest dreams.

Harmonize natural talent with interest that motivates.
Natural talent creates motivation, motivation creates persistence and persistence gets the job done.

Increase knowledge of subjects that inspires.
The more we know about a subject, the more we want to learn about it. A self-propelled upward spiral develops.

Take risk.
Failure and bouncing back are elements of motivation. Failure is a learning tool. No one has ever succeeded at anything worthwhile without a string of failures.

The best way to get the most out of life, and be successful is to keep knocking out your goals. In order to do that you must stay motivated.  Don’t let it take a disaster to get your fire burning bright!

How do you stay motivated?

Torie
Lighting my own fire daily