Sunday, January 31, 2010

Motivation

What is motivation?

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/motivation) motivation is:

1 a : the act or process of motivating b : the condition of being motivated
2 : a motivating force, stimulus, or influence : incentive, drive

To me, motivation is what causes a person to either do something, or to not do it. Motivation can be positive, negative, physical, emotional, monetary or obligatory. In fact, one event can have many various motivating forces working for and against the event at the same time! Why is this important to me and to this website? I find that if I have goals that other people know about, I am more motivated to complete them. Further, getting into a ritual of updating this blog would better accomplish my goals. It might even have the small side effect of helping you accomplish your goals! As to what those goals are, we will get to them in a different post.

Personally, I do better when the goals I want to accomplish have a penalty for failure or reward for success. Perhaps that is why the most common New Year's resolutions, "I want to lose weight" along with "I want to quit smoking" and "I am going to start exercising" usually fail. There is not a clear reward or penalty for failure and a distinct plan of action is missing.

In the next few posts, I will outline what my short term and long term goals are. If you come across the page, feel free to add comments.



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