Motivation Verses Driven

After watching one of David Goggins motivational video on his struggle to get what he wanted in life, I was inspired to write about the differences between being motivated and being driven.

Firstly, let’s define what motivation and being driven are.

Motivation can be defined as a general desire, need or want that generates the energy required for someone to behave in a particular way. While being driven is defined as having a compulsive or urgent quality; Propelled by something. A person who is driven is so determined to achieve something or be successful that all of their behaviors are directed towards that aim.

If you have certain goals and dreams that you want to accomplish you may feel that it is important for you to look for motivation that will help you reach those goals, this means that you must surround your environment with things that will motivate you and sometimes it’s not easy to do. But, the thing with motivation is that it comes and go, sometimes it’s not constant, today you can be motivated to conquer the world and accomplish all your goals for the day and then some days you’re just not motivated to do anything and you result to “Cheat break days”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to take a break from time to time but then again you must ask yourself do I actually want this as bad as I say I do?

Now, being driven is another powerful level that one enters in the pursuit of a successful life. When you are driven to do something, nothing in this world can stop you from doing it. That means no rain, snow, wind, injury or pain can stop you. Being driven by something is extremely power beyond being motivated. If you look at the lives of let say Michael Jordan, Les Brown, Oprah Winfrey, Lisa Nichols, Tiffany Haddish, Steve Harvey and many inspiring and successful people, you’ll see that at a certain stage in their lives they became very heavily driven by something and  nothing shook their vision of exactly what they wanted for themselves. Up to now they are still growing and spreading their story to touch others. They were clear on what they wanted, motivated or not, they commit to their rituals and habits and were driven to make something out of themselves and because of that they achieved more than they expected with their lives.

Motivation can only take you to certain places in your journey of life but when you are driven, you will always reach your finish line, no matter how long it takes,  you will always have the last win.

Being motivated is something that can happen in an instant or anytime but can die out. You can be motivated seeing someone going to the gym or eating healthy and that too can make you get your gear and head to the gym but driven is a constant state of mind that you have to do it and stick with it no matter what.

Personally, from experience I believe that motivation is sometimes good for short-term goals, like learning how to play the guitar, losing weight etc while being driven is good for long-term goals.

Sometimes without motivation, you can feel like your life is just floppy and over the place and not where you want it to be. Let’s take college students as an example. Some are motivated at the start of each semester to go to all their classes, listen more and pay attention. Yes, that goes on for at least the end of the first week of that term ( two weeks if they really push it out ) but then it dies down and they start going to college whenever they feel like the lecturer will be touching on an important topic or when they just feel like it. Another typical example is in the middle of the semester when students start feeling lost and not exactly sure where they are with life or just not sure if they’re doing the right course, and one day they feel extremely motivated, (I believe it’s always after that long shower  when they decide to try and think things through again and give life another shot). So, they sit down to make a list of what they need to do. They do all their assignments and even manage to make it to the gym. At the end of that day they feel happy with themselves going to bed that night. What happened that day? They were inspired by something which motivated them and boosted up their energy.

The truth is as students motivations come here and there but those who are top of the class in every single examination are driven. They are driven by something that feeds them every day regardless of whether they feel lost in life or whether they’re not having a good day. They are driven by excellence. I believe that should be the goal of every student who has a specific grade in mind that they want to achieve. My advice to any students reading this is to be driven. When you are driven by something,  nothing can stop you from achieving that grade!

Motivation is the startup for being driven. Motivation is the key but being driven is the engine and if you only have a key to a car without the engine, the car will not move. So if you are only motivated some days and not driven, then each month or year you’ll continue to ask the same questions  “What am I doing with my life” “ Where is my life going” and so on.

Motivation can connect the dots to helping you to know who you are and what you want in life but being driven helps you to fulfil the highest and truest expression of yourself as a human being. Motivation is great but driven is all. Driven is the state of your mind that says that no matter what, I’m not going to stop until I make it.

Constant motivation helps you to build up your vision for your life and sometimes can lead to the direction that you are to follow. But being driven gives you the power to be in the driver’s seat and take control of the whole journey because face it if you don’t drive your life, life will drive you instead. It gives you a mental stability of where you want to be in life.

Motivation and being drive helps you to choose and do the right thing for you and your future.

Motivation is the key but driven is the factor. When you are driven whatever is in front of you gets destroyed.

Make a decision right now to be driven, connect yourself to something that will continuously drive you to be the better version of yourself regardless of how you are feeling, whether motivated or not.