Essential Force 1: Drive
For the next few posts, I want to revisit each of the Five Essential Forces for Success I outlined a month ago in detail. These forces are really what define us as successful or not, are but largely absent from many of our lives. So, without further ado, let’s talk about Drive.
Drive
Definition (from Dictionary.com): an inner urge that stimulates activity or inhibition; a basic or instinctive need.
What gets you up in the morning? What really drives you to do your best? What prompts you to take action? If you have an answer to these questions, then you have your motivation. It’s an energy that compels a person to achieve things beyond their limits or doubts. Your drive is that source inside of you that moves you before you even know you have been moved, that feeling that urges you to take action in your life despite the challenges.
As stated in a previous post, motivation and passion fuel your drive. Motivation is the “pushing” action to move you forward, while passion is the emotional connection that sustains you on the path. So how do you unlock this motivation to achieve success beyond your wildest dreams? It takes a desire that overcomes doubt and negative feelings. A mission without motivation is like a locomotive without steam. It won’t go anywhere. It is a learned behavior, and takes practice and diligence to develop it.
A good example in my life is exercise and diet. I love exercise; it increases my mood and energy, and it comes easy for me. My problem, however, is my diet. I’m not a terribly poor eater, but I realize that I can make some positive changes that can result in a healthier me. My motivation comes from the freedom from medicine, doctor’s visits, emergency room stays, and the high costs associated with them. These are the fuels that feed the fire, the triggers that spark my motivation to make a change in my diet and continue exercising.
If I need extra motivation, I look to other people for support. I look for people in the news and within my social and family networks for those who are making similar changes. For instance, there were two women I went to college with that have made drastic changes to their lifestyle and achieved phenomenal results in weight, health, and confidence. I followed them through their journey via social media and was amazed at what they could do with the proper motivation. I figure if they can be motivated enough to lose weight through diet and exercise, then I have no excuse when I want to sit on the couch all day and eat cold pizza in front of the television.
Passion is that little voice inside of you that tells you that you that this is what you’re supposed to be doing when others are telling you the opposite. Your passion can be anything from the world’s best parent to the world’s richest or most powerful person, and everything in between.
Unfortunately, passion can also be misleading. If left unchecked, it can lead to blind trust in yourself, your abilities, and your accomplishments beyond reason. It can feed your hubris, that arrogant pride people have that hardens their hearts and makes them ignorant to others’ opinions and feelings. Essentially, unrestrained and misused passion can ultimately lead to destruction. Just ask Hitler, Napoleon, and all of the other leaders out there that used their passions inappropriately. What’s more, it can affect people on a personal level as well. Following your passion blindly can put a strain on the relationships between friends and family members alike if it is your sole focus and you don’t introduce balance into the equation.
But when used constructively, your passion can bring about immeasurable amounts of success in all kinds of areas of your life. Look at all of the success stories, from Oprah to Steve Jobs to Barack Obama to even Kevin Hart, and everyone in between. These people followed their passions no matter where it took them, and became wildly successful because of it.
Your direction and control will determine where your drive takes you. It is an extremely potent force that can also be dangerous in the wrong hands. Therefore, use your drive wisely.
