What is it that drives people? Drives people to love, live, succeed, take risks? I've had a lot of time to think about...well, everything lately. A few nights ago I got into a discussion with a friend about what causes humans to keep going. Why are some people more ambitious than others? Why do some people push themselves when others don't? During this discussion, religion was inevitably brought up. Ask me five years ago what drives people and my answer would undoubtedly be God. But when asked on Thursday, I had a vastly different answer: survival. If everyone just expected nothing of themselves and sat around, I believe that humans would just die off. There would be no progress, no innovation, no sense of accomplishment.
Taken another step further, people are so incredibly different, but so obviously the same. Every person desires to feel accomplished and successful. And those definitions are different for each person. For some, accomplishment and success are felt when a huge career milestone is reached, for others it is felt when they become parents. Whatever the definition, those feelings are vital in order to persevere and maintain forward momentum. Why, then, are so many people unhappy, unfulfilled, unambitious, and content to float in a pool of mediocrity? Choice.
I started to think about that a little more, and realized that everything revolves around choice. Some choices are easier to recognize than others, but that is ultimately what it boils down to. These days, I face a continuous mental struggle and I have to very deliberately choose to come out the other end better off. It would be so incredibly easy to make excuses and say 'well, it's not my fault this is happening to me. You can't possibly expect anything from me during this time because of X, Y, and Z." Instead, I am challenging myself to push through and get through this. I will keep expecting success of myself, if not more than before because of what I am going through. That is the drive that keeps humanity going. EVERYONE has issues. There is not a single person living a perfect life. It is how you react to those difficult situations that create greatness or failure.
Once the choice is made to react one way or another, there has to be some sort of expectation. I think the reason why some people aren't driven or motivated is because there is nothing expected of them. And by that I don't mean others' expectations, I mean internal expectations. I have unreasonably high expectations of myself, and to most people that is an unrealistic, impossible standard but it keeps me going. I expect myself to produce good work, get out of bed and be productive, maintain friendships, be a loyal person, etc. I have a lot of personal expectations that keep me motivated. When people don't have any expectations of themselves because of circumstance, they lose the mental struggle of "I can't do it because of this, this, and this". Replace excuses with expectations, and choose to meet or exceed those expectations and perhaps that is the start to finding true happiness...
