Motivation: fuel your life and live your dreams

     I welcome you to the first official Motivation Monday segment! So what better way to kick of this week than by discussing motivation itself?  It can be argued that motivation is at the very root of all success and has the unequivocal power to bring into existence heavenly wonders…and hellish nightmares! This is why it deserves the meticulous attention that it does. Unfortunately
at various stages of our life, our career, or our relationship we begin to lose sight of that fact and our motivation starts to suffer. To remedy that loss I think there are essentially three aspects of motivation we must be consciously aware of. All of which must be appropriately engaged or else burnout in whatever it is you are doing.

Meaning

     The first aspect of motivation is giving whatever you want to do or accomplish a meaning. Which is saying to yourself, “Why am I doing this and what am I to gain?”  Tony Robbins stated that when we start to associate a meaning with what we want, we "begin to create an emotion". It is that emotion that sparks passion. That passion is responsible for compellingly pulling us forward to our goals so we are not struggling to marginally push ourselves.  Once you have that compelling force acting in your life you find that what you are doing is not a job. It is not a chore, if you will. It’s a compelling existence that resonates what you have to offer this world in a way that can be bigger than the self.

Persistence

     The next aspect is persistence. Persistence in this context means how long you keep trying at what you are passionate about. By being persistent you untimely dictate how far the change you’re trying to create goes and by extension the level of its impact. Some also refer to this as repetition which is a valuable tool to utilize in order to fine tune skills and ability. In an interview that Will Smith gave, he touched on the idea that talent alone will fail you.  He went on to further say "talent is something you have naturally and skills come from hours and hours beating on your craft". What this is saying is it is not enough to find out what you are naturally good at and that be it. Life is a perpetual existence of fluidity. The challenges and obstacles are ever changing and if you are not constantly testing and training your ability, you will find yourself constantly behind the curve which in turn kills your motivational momentum.

Aggression

     One of the biggest failures in our upbringing is not being taught the distinction between good aggression and bad aggression. Most are told to avoid it altogether; turning the other cheek or just accepting half measures is the way to live life- it is not. You see, bad aggression is being fooled by failure into creating negativity. Good aggression on the other hand is simply taking the reins of your life and not leaving any stone unturned. Without an aggressive attitude to fulfilling your dreams, your motivation factor is an empty shell. You can have a clear meaning and passion about what you want   and say something like, “ I want to be a doctor to help heal others.” You can even be persistent and go through the repetitions of going to class every day to learn the subject matter, but if you are not actively and aggressively attacking areas of your life where you can improve and challenge yourself (e.g. participating in group discussion, attending tutorials, beating down your professors door to get an extra nugget of insight) it all will fall apart.   

     Now I know is said you can have the first two aspects of motivation but if you don’t have positive aggression it all falls apart. While this is true it does not mean that aggression is the most important lesson to take away. All three are equally strategic in maintaining a level of motivation that transcends your actions and decisions into a state of success that not only improves the quality of your life both mentally and physically, but potentially others’ as well.