Comments on: Motivation – What motivates YOU

By: Al

Al — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:35:49 +0000

Maybe I should edit your original comment so that I don’t look such a crap reader, thanks for the correction Garry.

By: Garry

Garry — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 14:23:29 +0000

hehe you better reread what I put; “I wouldn’t say I am highly motivated generally though”. I don’t think I’m really that motivated by much at the moment… it’s mainly just to pay the bills.

By: Al

Al — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:57:41 +0000

I’ve not heard that before but it makes perfect sense. Just do it now, I think I might of done a post on that

By: Al

Al — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:56:29 +0000

Like you Garry I think of myself as highly motivated but there can be many distractions working from home so being motivated in that enviroment is really important to be really successful IMO.

By: Al

Al — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:54:38 +0000

I know what you mean about getting the two confused. To me the goal is what you want to achieve whilst the motivation is the reason why. I think that makes sense.

By: Al

Al — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:50:45 +0000

That’s a great speach, thanks for sharing. On a similar theme I like the saying:
“If today was a test how did you do”, asking your self that eacg day before going to sleep can really make you think.

By: Tomaz Mencinger

Tomaz Mencinger — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:51:04 +0000

Similar to lying on your death bed is to imagine the same days of your life for the next 20 years. Or imagine the same boss and the same people that you don’t like around you for the next 20 years.

What motivates me is freedom and making the best of my talents to serve other people.

By: Ralph Jean-Paul

Ralph Jean-Paul — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:21:41 +0000

I’m one of those selfish people who finds happiness by helping others. I presented a talk entitled “What Motivates You” about a year ago and the one point I thought was important was the fact that a person is only going to go as far as the thing that motivates them.
Your motivation is a concrete slab and your goal is what is built on that slab. If the foudation is shakey them the goal will eventually crumble. Its like when people make New Year’s resolutions that they never keep. Chances are the reason they can’t keep the resolution is because they made it because they were suppose to, not because they were ready to change and be better. They were motivated by the coming year and not by the result of their resolution. Your post gets people thinking. Great job!

By: Mikael

Mikael — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:02:58 +0000

What motivates me? To be honest it varies from day to day depending on how I feel. But looking in the rear mirror I believe that one of the greatest driving forces for me is to constantly improve. I like to do things that can be measured because that is a way for me to see that I have become more.

Money definitely isn’t everything but they sure are an easy way to measure progress. I am a firm believer that in order to make more money you need to provide more value to others. So if I earn more I have created more value for others as well.

So what about the soft parts like feelings, love and passion? They are also very important to me but it is harder for me to measure and because of that they do not have the same motivating factor that money has. But they do play a huge part because if I’m not feeling good it’s hard for me to bring the best possible value to others.

By: Ed Thira

Ed Thira — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 19:34:22 +0000

One of the most powerful source of motivation for me is Steve Jobs 2005 Commencement Speech at Stanford University. The entire speech was great, but the one sentence that most motivated me to change my actions echoes Al’s post:

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

Full text here: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html