Monday, June 2, 2008

Motivation - External or Internal?

As you can see I'm currently ready "Harmonic Wealth" by James Arthur Ray and I read soemthing I'd never thought about before. It is on page 178 at the bottom of the page. It says, "If you find yourself having to get motivated to do something, it's not something you truly love. Motivation is something that comes from externals or at best must be generated. Inspiration, on the other hand, is something that comes from inside and requires no effort whatsoever."

I was having a conversation with my wife a couple weeks ago about what motivates each of us. At the time, I hadn't started this book. We were talking about how she is motivated by observing others. When she sees someone who is working hard, it makes her want to work hard. She can also be motivated by anger. Kind of an "I'll show you!". But in the context of the quote above, I guess she doesn't really love doing any of these things, because they come from external forces.

It's the same way with leaders. They can motivate their followers, but is it ever going to be something they truly love? I don't think so. But inspiring other, that will create a team that will follow you to the end of the earth and back.

By the way, my external motivation comes from love and appreciation. Show me you love me and appreciate what I do and I'll be right there!

1 comment:

Mindy said...

Very interesting, as I recently heard these terms swapped...motivation needs to come from within, while inspiration can come from without. I'm going to think about this a bit more, because I think that maybe it's a bit of both...but it's also midnight and I've had lots of Kool-Aid today!! :) I'll get back to you on this!