Motive- Something, such as a need or desire that impels or incites a person to a certain course of action or behavior

Question: What is motivation?

Motivation is everywhere and it pushes people to do the things they enjoy and even the things they don’t. You see motivation at its best when it drives somebody to get over the hurdles unique to them. Though the source is different for each individual, motivation expresses itself the same way in everyone. This ain’t a “wish it, want it, do it” mentality. It pushes you harder than whatever gets you up for your 9-5 job. You can’t shake it; it’s the unquenchable fire, the happy medium between need and want. It sees no competitors but compels you to stand out.

Humans can’t be great without being motivated, otherwise we’d only accomplish things for 2 reasons; because it’s necessary or for the sake of competition. If you only do things because they’re necessary, you’ll never rise above “average”. If you only strive to beat a competitor, you’ll never truly be great. Both extremes only carry you so far in life and neither leaves you happy. Motivation launches men and women into the passionate pursuit of greatness. It is the engine that revs you to do anything you put your mind to accomplish.

Question: What motivates YOU?

What is my personal motivation to build my body you may ask? I savor the chase of power and bodily change. To me, there’s nothing like controlling greater and greater amounts of weight and watching your body slowly transform not unlike a sculptor chiseling away to create a beautiful sculpture. But I walk a very fine line, between drawing from my own pool of motivation and the spirit of competition. It’s the dark side of social media. You can literally be flooded with various bodybuilders, male and female, being innovative and thinking outside the box. It’s very easy to get discouraged and get caught trying to “keep up” with others who aren’t even aware of your existence. In these moments I have to remind myself that I’m the only “me” the world has. There are things that only I can do, but I’ll never discover those things if I’m too busy trying to do what others have already done.

I motivate others as personal trainer because I enjoy seeing people accomplish things that they thought were impossible. No matter what a person hopes to achieve I love to see them reach the “unreachable”. It may be nothing to me but that’s ok; it’s their dream not mine. Who am I to tell them their pursuit isn’t worthwhile? No matter what they want to succeed in doing, for them it’s the gold at the end of the rainbow. Whether the goal is being able to squat the weight they used to in high school, keep up with their active grandchildren, gain the functionality they had prior to an injury or just become healthier; it’s worth it. You could probably say it’s motivating to ME to have motivated others to reach their goals.

I’ll close with this: There’s the story of man named Jesus who suffered one of the worst deaths known to mankind because he was focused on a greater joy. He was focused on the fact that he would rise again, that he would be united with his Father and that his death would lead to forgiveness for all who commit their lives to him. Many people consider this man to be just a man; I believe him to be God and my personal Savior. So if looking ahead served to help him through an extremely painful experience, I think that says something about the effect of a motive. Whatever you chase, if it is worthwhile, it will be difficult. There’s no way around that. There will be times when you get so low or disappointed you may question if you really want to accomplish it. Your motivation has gotta be bigger than the mountain; otherwise it’s not motivation at all.

Roger Skepple