What Motivates You to Work Hard?
Where do I begin?
Motivation. Focus. These are the requirements that allow us to work hard to achieve goals, correct? What drives us to be motivated? There's always a reason, right?
I posed a question in a recent conversation, "What motivates you to work hard?" When the question was redirected to me to answer, I felt I gave a reasonable and honest answer. So, I want to write it out, to see if it still makes sense.
I replied that running was the main reason for what motivates me to work hard.
I was never athletically gifted, whether it was basketball, baseball, or soccer. Hell, I don't even think I was that gifted as a cross country or track and field runner in high school. I think I liked the sports enough because I could at least be decently good enough to make a difference. That was always a driver; To be continue getting better to reach some unrealistic goal. Failing to reach a goal to motivate you even more to try and attain it.
It was good for me, but once I decided that continuing to be an athlete couldn't be possible, I tried to apply the same motivation to other things. If I could work that hard to be a decent enough runner, can I work just as hard, or even harder in say, school, work, or some aspect of life like friendship (Ok, let's be real, I don't have friends. Just kidding, kind of).
It's not as if I'm going to puke after working so hard to get an A in a class or to get some big project done early for work. Let's not be ridiculous here. It's a little bit tough to apply the same motivation because you may not necessarily love everything about school or work. I think that's the big difference. I love running and enjoy everything about it and having that enjoyment is a big factor for me to work hard. If I could love work and school the same way, then maybe working hard would be easier.
"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine
The quote above is certainly something that can be applied outside of running. You always want to give your best at everything your do, right? You might not consider everything you do as a "gift", but whatever you're doing, you should always put your best effort into it. Reap the rewards at the end of it. If you don't get rewards for it, then maybe one needs to retool their thinking a bit in order to get the rewards that satisfy them the most.
I don't know how much of this makes sense. My brain never converts thoughts into reasonable text.
Think about it a bit. What is driving you to continue working hard at what you're doing?
It's always fun to think, sometimes.
Motivation. Focus. These are the requirements that allow us to work hard to achieve goals, correct? What drives us to be motivated? There's always a reason, right?
I posed a question in a recent conversation, "What motivates you to work hard?" When the question was redirected to me to answer, I felt I gave a reasonable and honest answer. So, I want to write it out, to see if it still makes sense.
I replied that running was the main reason for what motivates me to work hard.
I was never athletically gifted, whether it was basketball, baseball, or soccer. Hell, I don't even think I was that gifted as a cross country or track and field runner in high school. I think I liked the sports enough because I could at least be decently good enough to make a difference. That was always a driver; To be continue getting better to reach some unrealistic goal. Failing to reach a goal to motivate you even more to try and attain it.
It was good for me, but once I decided that continuing to be an athlete couldn't be possible, I tried to apply the same motivation to other things. If I could work that hard to be a decent enough runner, can I work just as hard, or even harder in say, school, work, or some aspect of life like friendship (Ok, let's be real, I don't have friends. Just kidding, kind of).
It's not as if I'm going to puke after working so hard to get an A in a class or to get some big project done early for work. Let's not be ridiculous here. It's a little bit tough to apply the same motivation because you may not necessarily love everything about school or work. I think that's the big difference. I love running and enjoy everything about it and having that enjoyment is a big factor for me to work hard. If I could love work and school the same way, then maybe working hard would be easier.
"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift." - Steve Prefontaine
The quote above is certainly something that can be applied outside of running. You always want to give your best at everything your do, right? You might not consider everything you do as a "gift", but whatever you're doing, you should always put your best effort into it. Reap the rewards at the end of it. If you don't get rewards for it, then maybe one needs to retool their thinking a bit in order to get the rewards that satisfy them the most.
I don't know how much of this makes sense. My brain never converts thoughts into reasonable text.
Think about it a bit. What is driving you to continue working hard at what you're doing?
It's always fun to think, sometimes.