What Motivates Us to Take Action?

Let’s take a minute and ask ourselves a few questions:

• What are some successes in my life that I never thought I would achieve?
• What kept me going, even when the going got tough?
• What were the motivations, specifically?
• Are these motivations in my life today?
• If not, what can I do to restore the power of motivation into my life?

Some are motivated by affirmation and praise. Others by powerful emotions like fear and love. Motivation comes from the examples of others. Positive or negative criticism can motivate some. We can understand and deliberately cultivate motivational energy into our lives.

Knowingly or unknowingly, motivational input comes from the people around us. Proverbs 25:11 talks about “words aptly spoken.” If motivational energy is missing, we give permission for someone to speak the words that are “apt to us,” whether the words are affirmation or criticism or different words for different seasons. Then we draw from those words inner motivation to meet our goals.

May our Creator and Savior use others to speak apt words into our lives so we can accomplish all He has set before us.