When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favour.
– Elon Musk
We all lack motivation! We’ve all had those thoughts that make us think about how different our lives would look if we just _________ or ___________!!!!!!! (Fill in the blanks)
We know the positive impact this would have on our lives but we lack that spark! We simply don’t feel the initial push to get up and go after it.
Fear of failure holds us back. We are all afraid of that let down, of getting our hopes up- so we don’t even try. Motivation is not just for goal setting but for life in general.
Motivation is being active, actively looking for a solution to the adversity in our lives. If you’re in debt, homeless, unhealthy, heart broken, addicted, depressed or poor, there is a way out!
It starts with you and your actions!
We often think about the amount of work/energy that we have to exert in order to overcome the adversity we are currently facing, and that is almost always deflating. That’s where drive comes in.
When we are driven we don’t take no for an answer! There is no other choice! I’ll explain the difference between motivation and drive.
Motivation is temporary, Drive is a lifestyle.
Motivation is like a stick shift vehicle, if we set out to accomplish a goal we’ve set for ourselves, we need to hit the clutch, shift to 1st gear and gain momentum.
The problem is 1st and 2nd gear are only meant to keep the vehicle in motion. This applies to how motivation works. Motivation can spark the momentum to reach your goals but not to excel. Motivation is just the start up. Once you get on the highway you need to quickly get on 4th gear just to keep up with the demand. Getting to the 5th and 6th gear is when you separate yourself from other vehicles.
Some people don’t even know what it’s like to shift into 3rd gear, that’s not a good recipe for success or overcoming adversity.
This analogy was an example of the different gears that exist. It does not mean you should go from 1st gear to 6th, because that would burn you out.
This analogy was made to make you aware that there are different gears that are available. Genuinely ask yourself what gear are you operating on? Can you shift 1 more gear? Should you downshift? Be honest with yourself.
If you don’t know what being driven looks like, maybe you’re not looking close enough! Drive is not the gears or the sounds the exhaust makes. Drive is the hand that pushes the shift knob and the determination to get to the next level. Not for the glory but because this is the only way out!
I’ll give an example of what drive is.
I’ll tell you a story that changed my perspective on life forever.
There was a husband and a wife who had a total of 5 children. Two of the oldest kids immigrated to the United States but everyone else stayed.
Both parents worked really hard to provide for their children. They went through intense work-labor to save enough money to own a small supermarket and build a home. This supermarket became a pretty popular store in the small town. During this era there was a war going on between the rebellions and the military. Unfortunately most of the country was a warzone.
On a gloomy day in 1983 some members of the rebellion group went into the small supermarket. They pulled everyone out from the store and forced the husband, the oldest son and brother to kneel down. The wife screamed, “Take whatever you want!” The small children cried and hugged her legs.
Screams of horror poured out of the wife pleading to let them live!
One of the members of the rebellion group screamed back!
“SHUT UP! BACK UP!”
“WE DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU GUYS!”
The wife screamed back
“If you’re going to kill them, kill us too! We’ll never be able to forget this!!!”
(BOOM) !
(BOOM) !!
(BOOM)!!!
The world seemed to stop for a second.
The children stared in horror and the wife in a state of shock witnessed her child who was about to turn 18 years of age, her husband and brother get murdered in cold blood.
There was no one to call for help. No one was on the way to rescue them. No one could bring them back. Just a hollow feeling and tingling on the skin.
Emergency lines were flooded with emergency calls in the wazone.
Fifteen minutes later, the wife and children silently began to clean the brains off the street. They had to clean the dead bodies to bury them later that night. The 5 year old daughter fainted over the corpse of her father.
This is enough to send anyone into a psychotic breakdown! This is enough to make anyone suicidal! This is enough to make anyone lose their will to live.
A few days went by and the wife mourned the death of her family! But no tears came out, it was as if she had no soul. She thought of her two oldest children who had immigrated to the United States and she decided not to tell them about what had occurred. She knew if she told them they would rush back home and the possibility of losing more family wasn’t an option.
Instead she put her head down and worked and worked and worked!!!
She worked extremely hard and managed to open up a restaurant. She made a conscious choice to not roll over and die.
She was driven! Not driven to acquire more things, but driven to survive and keep the rest of her family alive! She didn’t need motivation, she didn’t have another choice!
That is will power! That is love! That is drive!
She had an excuse and didn’t use it.
That woman is my grandmother! She taught me what drive was through her life story.
I am driven by everything my ancestors have been through!
My family did not immigrate to this country to just roll over and die!
So why would I?
It is my responsibility to make it a better world!
For you, for me, for my family
For all of those who lost their lives!
They had to survive and thanks to them I’m alive
with a will to strive.
The definition of greatness is to inspire the people next to you
– Kobe Bryant
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