Seeking the Source of your Motivation

On ambition, productivity, identity, obligation, & more

The idea of a lifetime?

“This is what I’ll do for the rest of my life!”

I’ve exclaimed the above to my husband on more than one occasion, my eyes brimming with fire.

“For now,” he chuckles, a gentle and fair response. He knows better than anyone how many of my ideas have simply died out, how many books I own on topics I thought I’d become an expert in but never opened, how many dreams never made it past the incubation stage to manifestation.

You should see me when I get a new creative venture or project in my mind. I nearly burst at the seams with enthusiasm. I am an entrepreneur by nature, having built and run several businesses over the last couple of decades—a traveling yoga business, a yoga center, a healing practice, and most recently, a publishing company.

Once I have a company up and running, then my ideas become how to branch out from my original concept.

For instance, I initially set up my publishing company for the sole purpose of self-publishing my book. But sometimes, I can’t help but wonder what else I might do with my publishing company besides publishing my own work: I could walk others through the self-publishing process! I could become their publisher! I could offer courses, workshops, or mentor others to get their work out!

When I get fired up like this, I often leap first and look later. I start buying the books, researching the requirements, and asking trusted friends. I begin to imagine a long romance where I’ve nurtured a seed of an idea into a bud that finally bloomed into something extraordinary.

And then sometimes, before the project really gets off the ground, I suddenly lose the motivation to keep it going. Other times, it’s more of a gradual falling out of love. One way or another, I often lose the will or ability to sustain the fire that sources my motivation.

I’ve been through these birth-death cycles enough times to be a bit wiser about my approach to new ideas. I might still buy all the books and sign up for courses — but there’s a voice inside me that says, “Hold up a minute. Before you go any further, let’s see where your motivation is coming from.”

Motivation

“The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.”

Think about motivation as the fire that lights up our idea, or the kiln that fires our clay. We need enough fire to sustain us over the long-term, but it has to be a Goldilocks-just-right kind of fire—not too hot, not too cold, not too smoky, not too wet, etc.

Here are some possibilities as to what might be sourcing our fire of motivation. Consider each one and its motivational power in your project.