What Is Motivation?

Many people secretly wish to be more motivated about many things. Some of us wish to re-motivate ourselves about many facets of our lives. But what is motivation, really?

In the fabulous book Success through a Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone, the authors define motivation as “that which induces action or determines choice. It is that which provides a motive. A motive is the ‘inner urge’ only within the individual which incites him to action, such as an instinct, passion, emotion, habit, mood, impulse, desire, or idea. It is the hope or other force which starts an action in an attempt to produce specific results.”

Nothing in life happens by mistake. To be motivated for a long period you must work on it. For an athlete to be prepared to play Major League Baseball each year, he must attend and work hard through spring training. Spring training can last a good six weeks. All during that preparation time a baseball player makes many mistakes. His body hurts from the exercise needed to get in shape. Without the proper practice period of six weeks, the professional player could not play up to the standards expected of a Major League player.

A Major League Baseball player realizes that if he is not at the top of his game for an extended period of time, he can easily be replaced by a new and upcoming rookie hotshot player who is desperately seeking an opportunity to break into the big leagues.

Talk about pressure! That is why the salaries of Major Leaguers are so high. Maybe we should act like someone is standing close by, waiting for us to fail so we can be replaced. Maybe then we would be at the top of our own game on a more consistent basis.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
—Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
American inventor

So, then, how do we keep ourselves motivated for an extended period? How can we rise above the mediocre and average worker? How can we excel so we may earn that promotion? How can we land that better job, or finish college and earn that long-awaited degree which will enable our growth and higher income levels?

You already know you are capable of greatness. We all are. The amazing thing is that we were each born to be great. It is only our thinking that has infected our mind with roadblocks.

Oh, sure, you may be successful, happy, well-off financially. But you also may have settled into a comfort zone that many people accept in life. We each have the capability of being outstanding, not only in one area, but in many. Are you settling? Are you merely content? Do you know in your heart that you can do far better, or do something else you have always dreamed of doing?

When I was a teen, the boy who lived next door played the guitar. He was great—very talented. He was even able to write songs. For some reason, I couldn’t learn the guitar, though I tried to teach myself. So I stopped trying. It wasn’t my thing.

Still, I desperately wanted to write songs. But how do you write songs without playing an instrument for the music? Well, no one ever told me that I couldn’t write songs. And if my neighbor could write songs, so could I! So I wrote the words to tunes I created in my mind. Then I would sing the songs out and record them on a small tape recorder. The year was 1968. I have been writing songs ever since, singing unknown musical notes and words into tape recorders and, now, directly onto computer hard drives.

You see, my burning desire to write songs was so powerful that I overcame the obstacles before me. Over the years, I have had professional musicians listen to and decipher the tunes I was singing, and have had some of my songs recorded professionally, mostly for my own enjoyment. To this day, if inspired, I can write an entire song in less than ten minutes. My goal is to have more of them transcribed, deciphered, and made into professionally sung songs.

I will point out that my first songs were not fantastic. And some along the way were not great. But over the years I have accumulated over four hundred songs, and they have improved with every new one written.

Nothing is impossible. I can guarantee that if someone offered me one million dollars if I could only play ten full songs on the guitar by two months from now, I would be able to do it. I am sure most of us would be able to learn the new instrument and play ten songs for one million dollars. Desire is the key. I know I would be so motivated to complete that task that nothing would stop me from receiving that money.

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
—David Beckham (b. 1975)
English footballer