Fear or Passion? What’s your motivation?
In this industry, we get to meet and interact with many different people. A common thread among them is a fierce drive and determination to do great things. What motivates these people to push past adversity and keep moving forward? The answer is that they are fueled by passion.
A few years ago, we had a company-wide project to determine our mission statement and what truly motivates us. We determined that it is our deep passion to better lives around the world and help people achieve success. That word passion is important. You can be a driven person or have the desire to do something, but to have a passion for something is what will truly motivate you. It is this force that drives people past adversity and makes them excited each morning. It is a pursuit of excellence and striving to be better today than they were yesterday. To be motivated by passion is a powerful and positive energy.
The opposite way to be motivated is by fear. While effective initially, it is unsustainable. It could be fear of missing out, fear of being left behind, or fear of not being successful. This constant “push” of fear causes stress, anxiety, and may ultimately lead to defeat. Fear can cause clouded judgement and snap decision making, which will likely cause headaches down the road. An amusing analogy is to think of it this way: you can’t push a rope. It may advance a little bit, but eventually everything bunches up and no forward progress is made.
The truly successful people are those with passion. Think of the great influencers of our time. Their innate drive and determination was almost contagious. This is what you want for yourself and your business. Surround yourself with like-minded people and magic can happen. Now the real question is this: would you rather be pushed by fear, or pulled by passion?
