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LKidKyle1985's avatar

I am curious what motivates you, what doesnt?

Asked by LKidKyle1985 (6599points) February 10th, 2009

Do you consider yourself successful? If so what do you think is the driving force behind your success? If you consider yourself mediocre tell me why, and what you think got you stuck in it.

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10 Answers

madcapper's avatar

Mediocre. Disillusionment, apathy, love of the creature, lack of self-esteem.

Dog's avatar

Success- positive attitude and envisioning the goal. Not letting anyone or anything negative divert me from my goal.

SuperMouse's avatar

My kids motivate me for the most part. I have to keep focused on the goal so that I can get to a point where I can support them 100% on my own. I suppose you could say I am truly motivated by love.

hitomi's avatar

Successful – just because I am determined to be happy wherever I am. I use will power and positive thinking to keep myself from sinking into negativity, which would lead to failure. I also believe that as long as you’re happy you haven’t failed at anything!

cak's avatar

What motivates me? I think of the time when my ex left my daughter and I with $13.78 to our names, he wasn’t my ex, yet. He had gambled away everything. When we were visiting my parents, he took all the money. All of it. Years later, I found out he had hidden the money, knowing the marriage was ending, but didn’t care enough about his daughter to care about how she got food. I vowed NEVER to be there, again.

I am remarried, but I am also self-employed. I make just as much, if not more than my husband. (he has a job and owns a side business.) I know I could take care of the children on my own, God forbid something should happen to my husband.

I want my children to see that you are truly in charge of your destiny. The decisions you make can make a huge difference in the course of your life.

wundayatta's avatar

I’m successful in one way: I have a pretty decent job (although probably not as fancy as I’m capable of); a wife who sticks by me through thick and thin, and who is a great mother, and a good provider, as well; and incredible kids. I mean incredible in the kind of way that people come up to us and tell us they are incredible. I’ve got a house that will be paid off in three months.

Then again, I have talents that I am failing to honor. I am a pretty good musician, but I’m not playing out. At least, not in a professional way. I crave that public acknowledgement. I have a lot to give to my community, and I used to do that, but since I’ve had kids, I no longer do that. I like to teach, and I don’t do that, any more. Maybe a little through my job.

I’m a writer, too. One or two people here have told me I’m a good one. Still, I can’t seem to get it together to write anything coherent, much less try to get it published. The only writing I really do is here. I think of it as practice. It’s hard for me to imagine publishing a novel, even though I’ve said out loud that that’s what I want to do.

I was raised to be something extra special—to make an extraordinary contribution to humanity, and I’ve utterly failed at that, and can’t see any possibility of making that happen.

I would love to be in a band, playing every night. Especially when my kids go off to college. I would love to get it together, and be able to have the willpower to do things like writing stories. I’d like to make a lot of money, but that’s not really important. What I really want is to be up in front of an audience and have them cheering wildly for what I’ve just done.

There’s still time, although time is running out. Part of me believes I will get there. Part of me thinks I’ll just keep procrastinating for the rest of my life. What do they say? “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” My feet seem to be hot-glued to the floor.

augustlan's avatar

I’m inwardly successful, but outwardly not. What I mean is I am happy with who I am, and in my life that is a huge success. However, like many others, I have dreams that I do absolutely nothing to accomplish. My whole career has just been a series of jobs…nothing I’ve ever been passionate about. I am quite lazy, too. So success in the world has eluded me. Happily, I am mostly ok with that :)

cak's avatar

@augustlan – that is a huge success! Congrats, my friend!! :)

JonesIn's avatar

Success – my fear of failure drives me towards success, and I know the punishment of failure which is the constant weight of the memory derived from that failure.

Money also drives me towards success, as there is a lot in this world I would like do and see, and money is the passport. One day I hope to achieve perpetual success in which I am no longer a slave to the greenback.

Love, drives me as well, love of myself, love of life, and love for my family, who I’d love to allow to retire early, and let them live out their true passions.

My shadow is too unforgiving to ever allow myself to admit defeat.

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