A few years ago, I had the great honor of speaking to a group of high school teachers and the purpose of the talk was to motivate them in their roles as teachers. While preparing the talk I realized that no matter how much motivation you had, what mattered was what was driving that motivation. The focal point of the talk then became the power of love as the ultimate motivator which I will try to briefly explain here.
Motivation comes in many forms and is used for many reasons in order to achieve a certain goal or to behave in a certain manner. Mostly, the motivation is used to accomplish or achieve something for ourselves or to do something that will benefit ourselves before anyone else. What I have seen over many years and thousands of hours is that many people will lose motivation when things get hard and difficult and the task at hand becomes a suffer fest. But why do others persist, when many fail? The answer lies partly in the source of the motivation, in other words, where does our motivation come from. I firmly believe that if the source of your motivation is not love, then you are at risk of failing and of giving up. Love is the most powerful motivator there is and when there is love we are able to suffer through the unpleasant tasks we are facing, and the more unpleasant the tasks are the more we need love in order to persevere to the end. According to the Word of God, love never fails, and this is true.
When we love what we are doing and the reason why we are doing it then we will be able to persevere to the end and accomplish the desired result. When the reason for doing something is bigger that ourselves, in other words, we are doing something for others, then we need to be driven by love in order to persevere to the end. Love is not the only reason why we do things, but it should be the primary reason why want to accomplish things. Take for example Mother Teresa, who served for years in the city of Kalighat helping the homeless, the poor and the crippled. This woman was driven by love to serve others, at her own expense, and this to me, is an example of what love is and how love is the primary motivator for us to achieve things of greatness.
Love is a powerful driver and motivator, it is the force that drives us beyond ourselves and allows us to do things for others, at great expense to ourselves.
Be driven by love and fueled by desire
Shalom
