I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation lately.
A little question for anyone interested in answering:
What motivates you? Take that to mean “What makes you tick?” or “What do you use to motivate yourself?”, either definition.
What motivates you?
I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation lately.
A little question for anyone interested in answering:
What motivates you? Take that to mean “What makes you tick?” or “What do you use to motivate yourself?”, either definition.
What motivates you?
Tony Caselli 
That’s a good question.
One which I’ll probably have to really think about in order to answer it fully.
Thanks for asking…
I’ll get back to you on it.
Cool! Give it some thought, I’m looking forward to your answer!
What motivates me?
Couple of things:
1. Someone tells me “You can’t do _____ because….”
Well screw them! I’ll show them I can! HA!
Sort of goes hand-in-hand with;
2. Positive energy. I love my pink bubble that is MK every week, now I’m positive and looking forward to the weeks challenges and obsticals and everything looks rosy again! I got lots of ribbons tonight, for really nothing. I dunno, it motivates me and now I’m thinking clearer and actually wanting to do stuff again IRL (ie…theatre…). Can’t quite explain that one away.
Yep, positive energy is a good one. It’s funny how that works for you, but on the flip side of that is your other answer – “Being told I can’t do something”, which is, in essence, negative energy!
Now that I think about it, both of those work for me, too!
I am motivated by love. I believe one can find it in anything, if one looks hard enough. Once it’s found, it brings such pure happiness to life so why wouldn’t you look for it? There are different levels of love, of course. I love God, I love my family, I love my friends, I love my job…and there’s always that pesky romantic love which apparently you shouldn’t really look for because you won’t find it until you’re not looking for it. 😉
Aside from that, I’ve been blessed in my life and showered with love in everything I’ve done. I guess I just want everyone to have that feeling… and share the love for life I have with someone, too.
That was a really long comment. Sorry. I haven’t been to sleep, yet. Hopefully it made some sort of sense…
What a wonderful answer! Thanks bunnydin! I find love to be a pretty big motivator in my life, as well – although it’s very definitely NOT the only one…in fact, there are others that sometimes work even more effectively in getting my butt in gear. Still, you’re absolutely right – it’s one we should look for in everything!
Fear. Absolutely. Fear of getting stuck in whatever. That really wakes me up and gets me crackin’ to be honest. Usually when everything is happy, settled, and kind of normal, I get extremely lazy.
Motivation for me doesn’t equal happiness. It can lead there, but not always.
God, does that sound negative or what? It’s actually quite a positive thing for me.
What set you off thinking about this? hmmm
Annie
I love the variety of answers this question is prompting!
Fear. Yep, that’s one that moves me sometimes, as well. Usually it’s a fear of not providing for my family (well, I’ve found that to be a big one the last 7 or 8 years, for sure!) Sometimes though it’s a fear of doing poor quality work, of repeating myself, that kind of stuff.
What got me thinking about this…hmmm…..mostly it’s because we’re SO busy at Williamston right now – producing the show, getting the building renovated, raising the money to do both those things – a lot of motivating factors. Still, every now and then I have a day where the only thing I’m motivated to do is eat Dorito’s and watch sci-fi on tv. So I was laying on my couch (after a long day of working), watching FarScape and eating Dorito’s, thinking “I should get back to work.”
And it got me thinking about the question of motivation!
I love all these answers. I hope more come, it’s kinda fascinating!
Motivation
I find this to be a very interesting thread – and I can agree with and relate to everything stated so far. But I see the need to be motivated in two different arenas – the need to be motivated for what you enjoy, and the need to be motivated for what you don’t enjoy.
I’m not crazy about my job – but I still do it while I’m looking for another. Why? I fear I have to make a living and eat to continue breathing! So money is essentially my motivation. I don’t like using materialistic items as a motivation, but sometimes that’s what it comes down to.
But for the things I enjoy – or love – rarely is motivation needed … I do things things because I want to, for others, for myself … so there isn’t really a need to specify what motivates me – unless it’s that warm fuzzy feeling you know you’ll get once something is accomplished. And if I’m just too lazy to do something, than maybe I don’t love that particular item as much as I thought.
That whole response may be a little wishy-washy, but the previous comments motivated me to chime in. 🙂
Re: Motivation
Very interesting, Anonymous Poster, but I wonder about your comment “I don’t like using materialistic items as a motivation”. I don’t think, based on what you wrote, that “Materialism” is what’s motivating you in those situations. I think basic Life Needs are very good motivators, and that’s not being materialistic. My wanting to feed my kids and keep the house heated is a necessity, not a material want. (My wanting to get the big screen TV might be materialistic!) From your comment, it seems like you have the same kind of thought process! Thanks for posting, whoever you are! 🙂
I actually find this hard to think about. I often think I’m motivated by something evil inside myself– a competitive urge– the need to feel as if I’ve *beaten* someone– even if it it’s just some bizarre imaginary report-running (envelope stuffing, subscription selling, etc.) competition that exists only in my imagination.
Or– accumulated gold stars. Something like that.
The only saving grace I can grant myself is that I don’t care much if anyone else knows that I’ve “won” all my imaginary competitions :). Life is just a big game I’m playing with myself.
But that’s mostly really just about work– as far as the rest of life goes, I just want other people to be happy. I’m motivated by a sense of obligation and role fulfillment and by love. I’m motivated by the need to feel I’ve done enough to deserve something for myself. I’m motivated by feeling needed. I’m motivated by the need to feel useful. I’m motivated by waffles. Or donuts. Or any form of chocolate. That’s all.
P.S. I’m back!! Dunno if I still exist in KOL– I’ll find out tonight.
Hey Mary! So glad you’re back. Missed ya around here!
It’s interesting that you talk about the “beating” someone at something feeling. I know I, too, get that. Like you, I often think “Well, this probably isn’t the healthiest motivator, but at least I’m motivated!”. Still, in truth, there are some days when the strongest motivators are “I can do better than them” or, as Theatredivachu said higher in the thread, “I’ll show them!”. I work hard to keep those to a minimum, and am lucky to be in a career, art and business that I really love, and really feel is beneficial to society; it helps me remember the “Positive Energy” motivators! I have to admit, though, that some days the negative ones work the best. The balance of life, I suppose.
Oh, and Waffles? Abso-Freaking-Lutely. Did I mention that while directing the show in Ohio, there was a Waffle House about 7 steps from my hotel? Open 24 Hours? Breakfast/lunch/dinner for $2.80? Helllooooooo Waffles!
I think my most powerful motivation is praise from others. I know it shouldn’t matter to me so much what other people think, but nothing makes me more proud than people giving me positive feedback on something I’ve done (or worn, such as Monika complimenting my pants last night)
Generally, even without compliments, I feel proud whenever I finish a project, be it an opening night or wrapping up a data-set at work (I process data for a research project). I tend to get so discouraged and stressed whenever I’m working on a task that the release I feel when it’s done is amazing. I sometimes wonder if I don’t subconciously amplify my stress to make for a greater release when the thing is done.
But compliments are my bread-and-butter.
That’s really, really interesting. Especially knowing you in real life, as I do, and knowing your involvement in theatre.
You’ve got a great point. There’s often something very affirming about a simple “Nice job.” that can make my day!
Excellent post oldstancher! Nice Job! And…Nice Pants!
Music. Music motivates me more than anything else I think.
It was 10:30 last night and I was not done contact papering the house I just bought. I still had an hour drive ahead of me. I turned on Avenue Q and sang along and was able to get through the list of cleaning and stuff I had set up for myself for last night. Earlier in the evening when I was vacuuming all the blinds, I was dancing and singing along to Bonnie Raitt. On tired days, it keeps me going. On car rides, it keeps me going. When I hear particular strains of music or certain lyrics, it motivates me to feel a certain emotion or think through a new idea.
And fear. That rings true for me as well. I figure if something scares me, then I should do it. Buying a house alone. Done. Big freakin’ check mark. Audtions. I keep going, even though I hate them. I come up with a new monologue for each one. So now I have a nice stack of monologues to choose from.
I try not to let the “what will the neighbors/my family/my friends/my colleagues think?” think be a motivator. But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that public opinion does impact my decisions. I’m a good girl down to my core. Sigh.
Emily
Ah – music! Very nice!
How true! I know (and now we delve into Tony’s personal life) that I have, on more than one occasion, created a mixed tape or (welcome to the new world) a mixed disc of music to motivate me, or put me in a certain mood for certain projects!
Interesting point-of-view on the “fear” topic, too. What’s that quote…something like “The thing that you fear most is the thing you should overcome soonest.” I’ve butchered it, but it’s something like that!
Oh, and – “Vacuuming all the blinds”? Is this some house cleaning thing I don’t know about? Do they make a special little tiny vacuum for that? We have curtains, and vertical blinds, I don’t know if we’ve ever vacuumed them. Is that bad? Will my wife be mad at me for admitting this?
Nah, I just vacuumed the blinds with the brush attachment of the regular vacuum. I usually do this sort of chore just once. When I’m moving into a new place and I’m trying to irradicate someone else’s ick from it. Once I replace it with my own ick, I don’t care so much if it stays there. My ick is pretty nice.
– Em
And now, a brief summary…
I have really, really enjoyed this thread! It’s been interesting and educational, plus it really made me think about what makes me tick.
It’s interesting how the motivations really do fall onto the “Positive Energy” side, or the “Negative Energy” side. It seems like there are lots of both, and most of us use some of each of those. Very interesting. Makes me think 2 things:
1) It’s nice to see how many people have basically “Good” natures a lot of the time.
2) It’s nice to see I’m not the only one who also has a “Screw the world, it’s all about ME” attitude now and then that is useful for motivating my butt to succeed!
A nice balance of things.
Thanks everybody! Keep adding to it, I’ll keep checking it!
Motivation
The thing that motivates me the most is the need to grow and learn.
I guess it depends on what I need to be motivated to do though – sometimes it’s just getting out of bed!
Re: Motivation
That’s VERY good! The need to grow and learn. I find that I often wish that was my motivation more than I think it really is. You’re right, too – sometimes I just need to learn to get out of bed!
I’ve let this post simmer in my mind all day, not really thinking about it, but still churning away at some level.
I shouldn’t have read the other comments before I posted, because now I’m all “Yeah! What s/he said!”
I think I am motivated by different things at different times.
I’m motivated by necessity to get up out of the bed, because I have to pee, or to go to work even when I’m tired because I don’t want to lose my job.
One time, in this great acting class I was in in Los Angeles we had to do an exercise where we came up with two words that summed us up. It was sort of like an abbreviated mission statement. Mine was “joyful inspiration”.
That motivates me- the desire to have a positive impact in my own life and also the lives of people around me. Like tonight, I didn’t want to have this extra rehearsal on what could have been a really easy day for me. But once I got to working with those 4 kids, and saw the way they lit up when I could dust off some old knowledge that I really haven’t used in years and let them have it so they could take it and run with it, motivation wasn’t even necessary. Things just started to flow.
I’m motivated by the knowledge that I create my own life. That I get out what I put in. So when I find myself wanting to laze about and complain- if I think about reaping that harvest it usually does a lot to get me off my arse.
Also, one time my friends husband gave a talk about discipline. Discipline is something that I struggle with. He told us that the people who we call disciplined are mostly the people who are doing what they truly love. Like if you play baseball, and you love it, you’ll get up every morning to go to practice at 6AM. But that same person might beat himself up for not going to Bally’s to run on the treadmill.
Discipline is about finding what you love to do- what fires you up and then simply doing it.
That’s a lot of rambling. And for all my stewing today, I still don’t feel like my thoughts have come entirely clear on this.
But thanks for posting it so I could think about it today.
It was a very well worded post, for one that you thought didn’t come together clearly!
Discipline. That’s a great, great topic. How discipline ties in with motivation.
Reaping your own harvest. The knowledge, and UNDERSTANDING, that life really is what we make of it. That’s a great, great motivation, Kate! Knowing that no one else will do it for you, and that whatever you want to make of the world, you can, if you just work at it.
There’s a great quote from a friend of mine, about discipline and making your own future; “Time is being spent. The only question is, how are you spending it?”