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Motivate me already...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Nettdata, May 18, 2010.

  1. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    Been there. And I'll tell you, if you get there, and survive, you'll be a stronger person because of it. You'll realize that a lot of the shit that we put emphasis on in life, and tends to motivate us, like amassing wealth, being proper and obedient consumers, having the latest/greatest car/truck/boat, is somewhat false.

    I find it really interesting that so many people I know are motivated by money and material effects, and yet spend ALL of their time working and trying to amass those things that they really don't have time to enjoy them.


    More and more I find that being motivated by doing good, fun work, along with a bit of charity stuff (if you can call racing for Children's Hospital charity), adds more to being happy and having fun than having cash and "stuff".


    Mind you, I consider the fear of not being able to provide for your family to be quite different than just a fear of being poor, etc. I have and will gladly work in Hell and suffer long hours if it means that my family is provided for. That (when I was married), was probably my biggest motivator, ever.
     
  2. Crown Royal

    Crown Royal
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    Just call me Topher

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    Very lucid. Nothing checks your head like hitting bottom. You either do two things: give up and dig through people's trash in order to survive, or get your collective shit together and make things right. It's a hardcore lesson and life, but will motivate you to no end and all you need to bring to the table is drive and patience.
     
  3. Danger Boy

    Danger Boy
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    Emotionally Jaded

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  4. Samr

    Samr
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    Emotionally Jaded

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    My reputation, my family, and my legacy.

    My reputation:

    And by reputation, I mean publicly, real-life, in what I do. If my name is on something -- if people know that I am involved in doing something -- and I don't care doing what or for whom (whether it's a paper for school, a personal project, or something for work), it is going to be the best, most moral, honest, well-researched, and creator-of-the-most-positive-outcomes [widget] that it can be. I don't care if I'm in charge of the [widget] or part of the team, I'm going to do whatever I can, and support wherever I can, to make certain that whatever my name is attached to means something to people. Call it vanity, I don't give a shit. I want my reputation to mean something, and one misstep can tarnish it.

    My family:

    For now, this means my fiance. Later it will (hopefully) mean kids. I was raised in a privileged household, but only because I had a mother who worked her absolute ass off. I've experienced more in my short life, and grown as a person because of it, than most people do in a lifetime. Life was easy in a lot of ways, I'm not going to lie, and I want nothing more than my wife and kids to have those same opportunities. I'm not sure if a person has only one chance at life or more, but I'm going to make damn sure the life I'm providing for my wife and kids is a good one. I know my fiance deserves it; I'm hoping my kids are awesome enough that they do too.

    My legacy:

    I'll make this a short one, because I don't want to get all sappy on y'all. Bad news health-wise for me a few years ago, I was 18 when I had to face my own mortality. It was then that I came to the same conclusion that guides me the most now: what you do now is great and ultimately irrelevant, but after you die, if people still remember and are affected by what you did now, well, then that means something.


    I may add to this a bit later.
     
  5. Pink Candy

    Pink Candy
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    Disturbed

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    As narcissistic as this sounds, my primary motivation comes from knowing 99% of my friends and family couldn't do what I do. I have friends that are nurses and see some of the worst possible scenes in humanity due to disease and abuse, I have friends that are social workers, I have friends that work for CPS and even they tell me my job would be way down on their list of preferred occupations. It was vindication that all my work and studying for years paid off when someone that interviews abused children told me "I just deal with the child and hope for the best. You actually have to sit and hear from the perpetrator what he has done to children. That is something I could never listen to."

    The whole interest in criminology kind of came about by accident in a "fuck you, Dad" kind of way. He wanted me to go out and make a lot of money in a job I hated, but so long as it paid well, it wouldn't be a problem. I defied him completely and decided to go into a field I'm passionate about but will never make me more than 60k a year. And I'm perfectly okay with that. I had always been interested in the criminal justice world but he only showed interest when I was looking into the possibility of law school. When I told him I'd prefer a graduate degree in crim because I loved the course material, I thought his head was going to explode. A degree just for loving to learn? Not for money? It was unfathomable to him. That is when I knew I was doing the right thing.

    My best motivated moment came when I was nominated for Volunteer of the Year in our division. I didn't win, but I got some great recognition for picking up on our scoring tools and doing my job well in a very short amount of time. Hopefully this will serve me well in future jobs in parole or probation.
     
  6. hotwheelz

    hotwheelz
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    Emotionally Jaded

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    Insecurity: I have a constant need to prove myself to everyone. To show just how good I am.

    Being told I can't do something that I want to do. That only guarantees that I'll kill myself trying to do it just to prove you wrong.

    And pussy, of course.
     
  7. BL1Y

    BL1Y
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    Fortune and Glory.

    Not that I'm really on a path that's at all likely to lead to either. Blogging isn't paying the bills...or at all. But, I do it because it's fun and it's challenging (it's super easy for the first month or two, but damn...after that, it's hard to think of stuff to write about every single god damn day), and even though there's no money involved right now, there still are rewards.

    I don't want to sound like a complete self-centered douchebag, but I have fans. Like...real, honest to God fans. Not many, and none of them are particularly hardcore about it or anything, but there are people who look forward to when I write something new. This is amazing to me, not just because I don't think I'm really all that talented, but because I got into this after being in one of the least rewarding industries, big law. No one in a big law firm gets excited to work with you on a project. You are, at best, a way for someone else to pawn off work. If someone looks forward to getting a memo from you, it's because they just want to be able to move on with their day. No one really appreciates what you do.

    I also like working on something where at the end of the day, success or failure really comes down to offering value. A lot of traffic comes from referrals, so there's a ton of hustling/whoring involved, but no one wants to refer their readers to a blog that's complete shit, so it's not pure networking, it has to be backed up with content. That direct connection between performance and success is extremely nice and a great motivator. It's hard to get motivated to work on a project when half of how you're evaluated on it comes down to your ability to forge time sheets.

    Lastly, I'm motivated by a desire to tell the system to go fuck itself. So I have a ton of loans and no clue how to pay them off? That shouldn't be a reason to sacrifice even more of my life trying to just get back to square one. Being able to not play the game...even if just for a little while until my loans come out of deferment, is awesome.