Everyone is motivated by something. The problem is that many people don’t have a clue what motivates them. They live life just reacting to the stimuli that they are confronted with. This kind of person lives a very shallow and dull life. They are moved or carried by the currents of life.

What so many people are lacking today is simply: drive.

Drive is the invisible, internal force in a person that is where motivation meets activation.  Drive takes your desires and makes them become directions Drive is what keeps you moving when everyone else has quit, gone home or accepted defeat. A car in park does not serve it’s purpose. Cars are designed for transport. Just like cars, there are too many people in the world today who have placed their lives in park or neutral. Park means you are going nowhere. Neutral means you will be pulled or pushed into the direction of another.

Drive is more than desire. To express a desire to do something, to expound your thoughts about doing something, these are not drive. These are merely desire. Desire is either fuel or fumes. Fumes happen when the only energy your desire meets is in your mind. The fumes of your desire escape and you move nothing, do nothing and gain nothing. Desire is fuel when you possess drive. But, having desire alone is an empty gas tank. A car in drive with no desire moves nowhere.

When you have drive, you enjoy the ride. You enjoy the journey. Too many people today are so obsessed with the next step, they don’t enjoy the one they are standing on. Escape is not drive. Don’t mistake escape for drive. Escape is a feeling of just wanting to get out. Drive is understanding why you are here and what you can do about it–what you can learn while you are hear. Drive is not as much about the destination as about the journey. The journey is where the joy happens. For example, you enter your vehicle in a road race. Which joy is more lasting, the trophy or the time spent on the track. The most powerful memories come from running the race, not receiving the rewards. Trophies are meant for shelves and collect dust. Great lives are not determined by the number of trophies, but the number of miles on the track. And no race is won with a car stuck in park or neutral.

Drive is a differentiator. If you want to differentiate yourself from your peers and excel to a level beyond them, then drive on in learning, in understanding and in output. Your input often determines your output. The reason you don’t get as much out of something, a job, a position or a work is that you simply have put enough into it. And it goes beyond just putting in, you need to pour in. Pour your emotional energy, your mental energy and your physical energy in to what you already have. Too many today in our workplaces simply take more out than they put in. Those who have drive, pour more in than they take out. Those that are driven have an internal energy that burns when the external encouragement dries up. Those who live for feedback lack drive. Driven people don’t need lots of encouragement. Conversely, they are little affected by discouragement. A person with drive moves on despite the applause, despite silence and despite boos.

Drive reveals your mental and emotional strength. There are too many weak-minded people and emotional cupcakes in the world today. Drive reveals itself in a solid, steady and strong mind-set. Drive keeps you going when everything and everyone quit. Drive brings you in early and keeps you late. Drive goes the extra mile and does the extra work. Drive is not accepting poor performance or inferior results as final. Drive keeps working, keeps seeking, and keeps knocking.

Drive is also like hunger–a hunger to do more, see more and be more. Drive is a hunger to learn, to grow and to develop. Drive is an appetite and those that have it stay lean and hungry. They don’t arrive. They don’t push back from the table. They keep themselves lean and hungry, not lean and cranky. They have an insatiable appetite to experience for themselves what others merely look over, pass by or completely ignore. Drive is a kind of curiosity that keeps you turning over stones, looking behind bushes and digger deeper.

People who have drive are able to press on when they get push back.

In a world of passengers, be a driver. In a world of floaters, be a driver. In a world or spectators, be a driver. Those who drive experience fuller, more productive lives.

(c) Alex Vann, 2018