Leadership Thought #247 – Be Careful About What Motivates You
In business and life, it is important to understand what motivates you. There are good motivators and bad ones. Striving to make a positive difference in the world and/or building a great company is a much healthier objective than simply accumulating personal wealth or power. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t reap the rewards of your efforts. Few things are more valuable than a person who works hard and does well at something they consider meaningful and important. However, be wary of seeking money just for the sake of it. Wealth should be the outcome, not the objective.
Your life will contain moments that test your values and present you with difficult personal decisions. How you make these decisions can end up making an enormous difference in your life. Do you choose to do what is right or what is most convenient? Will you be honest or untruthful? Do you factor in the impact of your decision on others or not? Do you take ownership of your actions or cast blame on others? Do you have a win-win mentality or a win-lose mentality? How much is enough, and at what cost? You need to pay close attention to what truly motivates you!
I was watching an intriguing movie last night called Margin Call. It placed its sights on the easy target of Wall Street and the questionable values that dominate this environment. When the only objective is growing or keeping what you have, people will do things that are hard to fathom. Smart young people will become cynical middle-aged professionals if they myopically focus on how much they earn and where they fit in the power structure, ultimately believing that the ends always justify the means. You turn other people into disposable resources, using them only to further your personal goals and discard them when necessary. Happiness ends up becoming an ever-elusive target as you realize the person you wanted to become is lost in a haze of misguided intentions and motivations. When you lose your moral compass, finding your way in the jungle of life becomes challenging.
Related articles
- How To Have More Control Over The Decisions You Make – From The Inside Out with NLP (transformingleaders.wordpress.com)
- How do high achievers really think? (psychologytoday.com)
- Motivation vs. Inspiration (tominvestor.wordpress.com)
- What is motivation in terms of the expectancy theory of motivation (wiki.answers.com)
- Money & Motivation (aphilosopher.wordpress.com)
