Found this video this morning: Very interesting. Can't comment on the accuracy of the findings, but it makes me think about what it is that motivates me, and the people I know. Personally, I find that the ability to work my own hours, in my own location (at home, in the Fortress of Solitude), is much more of a motivator than I ever thought it would be. Couple that with working with smart people, and there you have all the motivation I really need. FOCUS: Discuss what motivates you in work and life. ALT-FOCUS: Share a time when motivation went terribly wrong... or went very right.
Work: I want to be creative. As a graphic designer there's a big difference between graphic and fine arts, as well as the size of their respectable niches in the job market. My day-to-day is designing sterile business cards, banners, non-risque advertising, I literally have to force myself to do these things that take me no time because I've been doing it so long. However, every once and a while, that job I get excited for comes along. I designed an ENTIRE media kit and promotional package for a haunted house up in Georgia, which my payment was promise of getting a percentage of what the gate takes in October. Do I ever expect to see the money they were talking about? Hell no. BUT, they gave me full reign to do what I wanted, get as gorey and fuckin' metal as I wanted, and they ran with it. It came out spectacular, that's the kind of stuff I want to fill my portfolio with and attract as regular client work. That's the critical motivating factor I think, designing something as if it were for myself. Experiment and expand my style rather than run through the motions. Life: I work and get shit done, so I can do nothing. Quite literally, I am perfectly content to spend my time enjoying watching the world go by. If I know moving my ass will mean some extra time at the beach or sitting on the porch over at the shop, I'm gonne hustle the muscle and get things done. Lifting some weights, riding some motorcycles, eating a good lunch and forgetting about all the bull shit is what motivates me.
I had a Technical Director that implemented a "star of the week" award, which was meant as a peer-voted "attaboy" that was to be handed out at the weekly team meetings. First 2 weeks went well, but on the 3rd week, he basically said that there would be no award, as nobody was deemed worthy of it. This is on a team that busted their fucking asses 60-80 hours a week for "the team". Yeah, the weeks following that showed a drastic drop in productivity, as the entire team stopped giving a fuck. Some "leaders" just don't get the concept of motivation and esprit-de-corp.
Jealousy. Whenever I find myself listening to a buddy or a colleague talk about his new promotion or business taking off, I feel compelled to work harder and try to outdo whatever accolade they just accomplished. Sure, I'm happy for them and wish them the best but I'll be damned if it don't harbor some jealousy in wanting what they just got.
As of now, it's moolah that motivates me. My wife (who makes more money than me) was on maternity leave for 16 months and we are in debt (but nothting to panic about) so I worked three jobs (one full time and two part time) willingly. I've benn under contant fatigue for some time and we're desperate to go get some sun down South this year so we are both pushing hard to try and get enough coin put aside for it.
right now girls motivate me. I am 20 and am still a virgin. In the last month i went from a skinny 160 to a much more adequate build of 177ish. I can do a full deep squat ( not those little girl paralell squats) of 245lb.
Close to jealousy, I'm motivated by competition. I don't like being beaten in anything, and honestly, I rarely am. The wife ate a good meal at a diner the other day she couldn't stop talking about. I made the same meal last night and she said it was better. I'm rarely anything but the absolute top performer at work. If I get caught in a sub at my jiu-jitsu class, I work on the defense and with the same partner, even if I'm completely dominating him otherwise. I often beat my daughters in Wii-bowling even though I tell myself not to. I have problems.
Being a bookie requires me to be motivated mainly by apathy and greed, but I find myself motivated by the atmosphere. Loud, racist, sexist, and all other not-PC antics aren't even close to monitored. I grew up knowing early on in school that a 9-5 desk job was out of the question, always being asked to "take a lap" when my teachers grew frustrated with my inability to sit still (not ADD, Adderall just made it worse). I thrive on being able to work my own hours and determine my own check every month. It's also a fun little test to see who can survive in an environment where your boss has been known to say to the female agents, "you look like Patrick Ewing's cousin," and "I like it when you cry," usually one following the other. Life- snow, surf, and snatch.
Seriously right now health and girls After being in a relationship for four years and having been fat at the start, I stopped giving a shit at all (as opposed to not giving much about shit) because IM 18 AND INVINCIBLE AND GETTING LAID. Now that she's headed off to law school six hours away and noticing that A: Its really hard to get laid when you look like bearded jabba and B: it should never be that hard to climb three flights of stairs, I'm getting my ass in gear and fast. Down 20lbs so far... trying to lose around 95.
So a program whose funding profile is a third of a TRILLION dollars in tax payer money, which by all accounts will result in the prime contractor unable to fulfill production quantity baselines on, and is a derived requirement for a battlespace that can be argued is obsolete through 2035 motivates you?
Post Dinner Timeout EDIT: In all, I'm just fucking around with Diablo. I work with the military everyday, more specifically with Marines. Marines that accept their call of duty no matter what, that work harder than most, and typically sacrifice time that can otherwise be spent with their family or friends, or just straight up do nothing for something they may or may NOT believe in. Marines have a hard time doing nothing. That motivates me. The first Marine I ever met was Maj. He was a backseater test pilot on F-18F (circa 2002), and at the time of our meeting (we sat right next to each other) he just had triplets. As a Marine, I knew that no matter the circumstances back home he would travel to the edge of the Earth at the drop of a hat to fulfill his oath to this country. A better man than me for sure, that's why I have chosen to protect such dedication to the best of my capacity. War sucks. Americans dying in war sucks more. I'm an Electronic Warfare engineer, and I've got the aviators back. As far as my civilian and contractor peers go, I fucking love "thank you's". Real thank you's that make you feel as though you made someone else's day a little easier; a little more productive. That's what motivates me. As far as personal life goings on, I'm not really that difficult. A quiet movie night with the wife is just as rewarding as closing down the bar and inviting a dozen people over to kick it in the hot-tub and blast music until 4AM. Having my dog greet me after work like he hasn't seen me in over a year is just as comforting as fulfilling a trivial request that my wife had made 12 hours earlier when I was half asleep. Doing nothing except waiting for a fish to bend the rod is just as exciting as planning a $4000 summer get-away. What motivates me? Choice. Options. Simplicity. Love. And Poker. I'm going to go play poker now. Fat stacks, felting donks. Poker.
Like Nett I've recently become very motivated by my ability to work wherever and on whatever I want. So long as it makes money. I honestly can't imagine doing a normal 9-5 job that is location specific. I literally couldn't do it. At the end of the day I'm motivated to do my job because it makes me money. If I need more of it I push myself and my employees a little harder, travel a bit more, and close more orders. Having a standard salary would kill me and completely demotivate me. In life I'm motivated by experiences. The majority of the good ones take money so this fits well with my work motivations. Edit: I was going to write that I'd also love a job that allowed me to "create" something but since I theorize 90% of the equipment in my head before I quote it I guess I do get to do that.
Pride is my motivation. I'm getting my PhD because I would be wasting my talent if I didn't. I'd be complacent, and my signature describes my feelings on that. My family is my motivation. Not just my immediate family, but also my future offspring. I come from the bottom of the bottom. When I get my PhD, I'll be changing my socioeconomic status. That may not mean much to anyone else, but I've had to tear and fight my way to where I am. I have been blessed with incredible mentors along the way, but it has been my blood, sweat, and tears that I've shed along the way. I feel inadequate when I'm around my colleagues at graduate school. The majority of my cohort comes from money. They don't worry about rent. They don't worry about food. They have their family backing them if slip and fall. My family can't offer me the same support. I'm often torn between staying in the program and going back home to work. I could get my old job back, and my family could definitely use the support, but I'm trying to focus on long term goals. Things won't magically be better once I'm Dr. Dyson and shit, but I'll be able to help and support them on a larger scale, I think, and my children won't ever have to be the poor smart kids. They'll be the smart middle class kids and I'll spend the rest of my life trying to avoid creating an entitlement complex. I want to have a meaningful life. I think that for myself, that can best be accomplished through becoming a psychologist and treating patients, as well as conducting research. I think that will allow myself to have a meaningful impact on as many people as possible.
Define long term goal? I've always looked at life in two ways: there's places that you want to be and places you like to be. I'll explain. A place that you want to be is a motivation; a motivation to move forward through space and time to seek for a place you'd like to be. And that's fine, because one usually visits the places he like's to be, if only for a while, and moves along. Along the path to consistently find new, different places he'd like to be as to fulfill his long term goal. Now, for some people, it may not take an amount of time (or long term goal) to find place they like to be. So shouldn't motivation be put forth to stay in those places, rather than always believing that what you have is not good enough? Grow on whatcha got, moving outward instead forward, so to speak. We're always moving forward and I don't know why. I know why. Just don't get it
1.) Being told "No." I hate it. Whether it's being told I'm not allowed to do something or go somewhere, I hate being told no. Being told that there's no way I'd be able to do something is possibly the biggest motivator for me. My dad figured this out when I was younger and used it to his and my advantage a LOT. "No Viking, you won't be good enough make All Conference this year." "No Viking, you aren't good enough to out-wrestle him." "No Viking, you won't be able to win All Area Art honors." I fucking hate it, and it pushes me harder than anything to be better, not only to meet expectations, but to surpass them. In a different area, it works socially as well. Especially with the fairer sex. I think it was Robert Greene who said that "seduction begins with "No." and it couldn't be more true. I can honestly say the reason I've been with as many girls as I have is the fact that I didn't give up the first time I was rejected or told "No." (Don't take it the wrong way, and I know when to realize No means No) 2.) Losing. Absolutely fucking hate it. I feel physically sick every time I lose from a game of chess all the way to rugby, Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It's partially losing and possibly also a need to make up for it/revenge. I lost an in-class drawing contest earlier this quarter that the professor purposefully fixed to ensure I lost. I'm top of my class in terms of sketch ideation and quality and even knowing the professor skewed the results, I was so mad about losing that I stayed up all night sketching the same product over and over again until I could represent it perfectly every time. I'm not sure where the competitive nature started, but it's been as big of a motivator as being told "No" in my life. 3.) Being an underdog. I love it. I love being in a position where I'm overlooked and underrated and not expected to win or make an impact. The lack of pressure and the feeling of sitting back and performing are two of the best feelings I know. I'm not a huge clutch person. I can perform under pressure and can do so consistently but I'm at my best when I'm under the radar in sports, class and life in general.
For me, motivation comes from noticing results in patients' and clients' self esteem and physical health. It feels really good when people get discharged and you know you were part of the team that made them better. I spend a lot of time with these people for anywhere from 1-4 months, so I really get to know some of them and genuinely care about them on more than a superficial level. It's really rewarding when you see their confidence returning or they get back to their normal life/activities. On a shallow level, grad school applications motivate me to do my personal best in school and at work. Less than 10% of applicants get into the program I want, so I have that thought in the back of my mind during every class/day at work/volunteer experience.
I wouldn't describe myself as the 'ultra-competitive' type. I don't start fights during Slow-Pitch, and I head to the football field every fall knowing full-well my touch-football team is likely going to get stomped by a better team. Yet when I assess my life closely I am clearly motivated by career competition. Sports radio is a competition hot-bed, and I'm well aware that if I slack off or become content with my current situation, that some younger, more determined personality could come in and put me on my ass pretty quick. Right now I'm 24 (25 on the 25th) and by radio standards am still quite young. But I'm at a very important crossroads in life right now and the next step in my career and the timing of said step will have a ton of consequences either way. My goal is to be calling Major Junior hockey by the time I'm 27, which gives me a three year window to get there. I've got the voice, the contacts, and the experience - But so do countless others out there. Therefor I need to motivate myself not by my 'haves' but my 'have-nots.' If I'm 28 and still calling hockey in the boondocks - I'll be content, but not happy.
Fear. I'm afraid of being poor, losing my house, car, etc. Its incredibly stupid logic because I've never come close to losing anything, yet it drives me. Practicality is not my forte, but it sure has helped me succeed in business.