Motivation

the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior

When trying to convict a criminal the prosecution needs to present a motive for the person's action. When reading a novel or looking at a piece of art, we often wonder the creator's motivation. In a scene of a play or a movie an actor needs to know his character's motivation.

Motivation comes in all guises. You've got internal motivation and external motivation. Your stomach growls; you are motivated to eat. Someone calls your name; you are motivated to turn your head. Now, this is motivation in the rudimentary state of stimulus and response. Let's go to a higher level.

Now I feel like looking at motivation because, you guessed it, we had a motivational speaker yesterday. Granted it wasn't the most moving experience in my life, but he was far better than most I have watched in my life. His message was simple:

1. No matter what someone does to you, you will never lose your Value.
2. Even if you are afraid, have Courage.
3. Everyone deserves Respect.

All things I truly agree with. Motivational speaking isn't hard to be all right at, but to get a cynical fellow public speaker motivated -- in my opinion -- takes talent. He didn't even have the look of a successful man or one I would give respect to, but I did.

The simplicity of his message, I think is what sold me. He took the things that cause problems in our society and essentially remedied them with these three rules. I know that all motivational speakers are very idealistic, but you have to be a little idealistic to get by in this life. You have to hope for more and expect more. That's the only way to get something out of this thing called life. 再见.