One thing I’ve learned in life is that success is a product of motivation.  Granted there is much more to it than that, but I’d like to just focus on that for just a bit.  Motivation is part of the equation for a great deal of formulae out there in the world.  Without motivation, would you have talent?  I’d argue that you did not, for what is talent but motivation and practice.  Elvis Presley, a truly talented artist in his day, wasn’t born singing.  Nobody is.  He was born with the motivation to sing.  Whether through his childhood or some random act.  Regardless of all that, something happened to motivate him to practice his singing.  I’d be willing to bet that he wasn’t the greatest singer when he first started (probably around the age of 5 or 6, I’d wager), but with practice, he became the world-famous  hound-dogger that he was.

Motivation also played a key role in actor’s lives.  Failure is a huge motivator.  It’s just what you do with it that’s important.  Take a look at Arnold Schwarznegger.  From what I understand, he was left his home in Austria to become an American.  He was motivated to pump iron because he wanted to fulfill the American dream.  All the while, people mocked him and told him that he would never do what he wanted.  Eventually, he wanted to act and, once again, he was told that he had a funny accent, his name was too long and that he was just too big for any role.  Did that slow Mr. Universe down?  No, he was still motivated to continue pumping iron and trying out for different roles until one day a director decided to take a chance on him in 1984 on a little movie about a time-travelling robot bent on destroying the mother of the leader of the resistance in his time.  We all know that that little role brought on more roles and eventually Mr. Schwarznegger not only became Mr. Universe and a world-famous actor, but he was also the Governor of the state of California.  Why?  Because he was motivated.

Many of the world’s billionaires know of that word.  They also know the word failure and oftentimes, they go hand-in-hand.  Without motivation, there would not be failure and without failure there would be no motivation.  Imagine, if you could do anything and everything you ever wanted…and it was easy and never challenging.  That would be great the first few times, then it would be terribly boring.  Life wouldn’t really be worth living if you weren’t struggling in some way.  It’s like a scene in any novel.  Would it be worth reading if your protagonist always got his way and everything worked out for him?  No.  It would be pretty boring.  Why?  There is not reason for the reader to worry about him.  There is no motivation–on either the part of the protagonist or the reader.

If things aren’t going well for you, do not fret and certainly don’t give up.  It is life trying to give you the motivation to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and try again.  Eventually (as everything is eventual), you will succeed.

As always, thanks for reading.

Lee