What Is Your Motive?

What is your motive for doing the things you do? I believe your daily performance is in reality whatever your motive is set in motion. In the work that I do in the marketplace of America, when I ask that question, most often the answer is money. What if I told you that money negatively impacts your performance? Well, that is essentially what Daniel Pink says in his new book Drive.

Up until the twentieth century, behavioral scientists believed that motivation was the product of our base instincts coupled with the desire to receive reward. The promise of reward for certain behavior and rebuke for non-behavior was the ruling word concerning the motivation of people. The industrial world created work that essentially required little to no thought or creativity. Even then, he suggests, people would do more if you didn't demotivate them by reducing what they do to dollars and cents. For activities requiring thought and creativity, people have to be managed differently in order to encourage their internal desire to make a difference. And, that is the marketplace we live in today.

Pink's new book, Drive is excellent. However, I want to distill it down to its simplest form. Your reason why is your motivation. If you are for sale and if money is your only reason why, whatever you do you will ultimately be something you resent. We were never meant to be for sale. Even if it is respect or even recognition you live for, you will always be disappointed because you will never get what you need. Positioned people in your life will always let you down. No, your motivation is your responsibility. It is within you.

You and I have been created with an internal need to create and to make a difference. We have also been created with the internal need to love and serve. The truth is every single day calls for the most creative, the most influential, the most empathetic, and the most contributive we can be. It cannot be contingent upon how we are priced by others. It cannot even be limited by however our job description tries to define us. We will always be more than the definition of the world around us. And, we will always be more motivated by what lies within us than what we experience without.

So, create something this week whether you are challenged to or not. Challenge yourself. Do it for you and because of you. Motivated living is the healthiest form of living. Choose a motivated lifestyle for yourself. It will ultimately be recognized, respected, and maybe even rewarded. Who knows these days? Do it anyway. The integrity of walking out your potential will make it worth it all. Do well, my friends!