The Successful Person's Motivation Matrix

After reading Proverbs 30:12 that says, "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness." We began to ponder the reasons for the current "entitlement generation". Why would people live a creed that says, "I work just enough to ..." or even worse, "I will only work if ..."

While we intuitively feel that such "half-stepping" equates to "half-living"... we wanted to discover what were the factors that motivate us to consider work to be the "staple of life". Why would we accept a daily "work commitment" in the sense that every day we commit to work, to expend energy with purpose?

Our answer was the successful person's motivation matrix as pictured on the right. The matrix is similar to the famous Gartner "magic quadrant" that it uses to evaluate software products. Each quadrant is a position along two axes. In our case of motivation the axes are sustainment and power. By sustainment we mean how long does the motivation sustain effort. And by power we mean the intensity of the feelings involved. Thus, the highest form of motivation is love in terms of both sustainment and power. The lowest form of motivation is pleasure which of course is a motivation but most people do not realize that it is both transient and provides diminishing returns. The act of creating or expressing yourself creatively is another motivation that sustains many people for entire careers. Joy is a byproduct of effort often derived from the building of strong, healthy relationships. And now back to Love, which is by far the most powerful and longest sustaining motivation of all. It is these "higher motivatios" that drive us to easily and willing give that "daily work commitment". To understand that work is good, work is prayer and work is the staple of life.

It is our sincere hope that all of the young people in our lives will consider these motivations and make that daily work commitment towards a life of success!