The Question?

A few years ago, on the front page of USA Today, there was a feature story about the millions upon millions of dollars being spent in corporate America in an effort to motivate its workforce. Every relevant statistic was showing that their investment was yielding little to no return. Employees were showing signs of being less motivated through their health, attendance, retention and attitudes than ever before. No program of training helped. In fact, nothing seemed to help. Spencer Johnson was quoted as saying that until they began to ask the right question concerning the motivation of people nothing would change. What is the right question? The one he raised was whether motivation was an "inside out" or an "outside in" question.

Why do people do what they do? That my friends is the question. In fact, maybe a little beyond why. Do we do what we do because of who we are or because of who we are striving to be? And, is who we are striving to be our idea or someone elses? Notice how I made this personal. Because it really is. Motivation cannot be done to you or to me. It is something that comes from the inside and moves out. Johnson made that point in the article. He was the only one by the way that made any sense of things and he got very little space.

Motivation is personal. It is a spiritual issue. It is the energy that moves us. It is our passion for life and for work. We cannot live life striving to become something or someone we are not, with a fear we will never make it. Fear is debilitating. We need to live and work knowing who we are and operate through that strength and realization. Soaring with our strength is the answer to the motivation question. The Gallup organization found that to be true years ago. Don Clifton and Paula Nelson wrote a wonderful little book with that title.

Years ago I read Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald where he challenged me to answer that question - why do I do what I do?. So now, I challenge you to answer that same question for yourself. It is worth the time. It can change your life.


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