Motivate me. Please.

Hello friends,

Week 3 as a San Diego resident already! I almost can't believe it :) Some exciting updates to report: I signed the lease on my new 1 bedroom apartment last night in Pacific Beach!! It is 10 blocks from the beach and absolutely adorable. If they rented apartments like this in NYC, as a friend said...they'd be going for "a cool $3.5k a month." Not the case here ;) I also landed a job this week! I am so excited to start working at my new company in the New Year- details to come in a separate post. But my heart is happy to know that it sounds like a great group and will be a great learning experience/new personal challenge.

In other, more literary news, I do have some thoughts I would like to share. The idea of motivation has been on my mind quite a bit in recent weeks and I need to do a mental reorganization of sorts regarding the concept. What is it that motivates us? Such a vague and broad question, I know, but why is it so different for everyone? I have been reading a lot in my new book "Integrative Nutrition" (for the online courses I will be taking that begin in the New Year as well) that there is no 1 diet that everyone can abide by, lose weight on, and feel their best with. And the same seems to be true for personal motivation. For many, it is religion, knowing that we are living a "Christ-like" life and doing all that God wants us to. But what about another group, who maybe don't take direction from God. Some other forms of motivation can come in the form of competition- knowing that if we strive at one task, we will come out on top beating all others. For many others, it is simply doing what they believe to be the morally sound "right thing." And still for others, it is a strive towards personal perfection. Feeling fulfilled based on the inner knowledge of learning new ideas and applying them to improve ones life. And finally, there is the satisfaction of pleasing others. To some, knowing that they will make others happy can be one's sole motivation. I am sure there are many other forms of motivation; these are just the general types I gathered at the moment. SO my questions is, is there some sort of perfect combination? An equation that we can apply to life that says A + B will get us to C? I know we are all going to a different "C" (places) but there has got to be some commonalities that lead those truly content individuals towards personal success. I would also imagine that these forms of motivation would vastly differ between sexes; at least in the atmosphere I am in now. All of the men around me strive towards physical success and use some sort of masculine motivation to get them there that I am unable to relate to. Where as my goals are more mental and analytical ones accomplished through non-physical work. Trying to work this out...I think that motivation most likely comes from an emotional place. All of us want to feel happy and content, and so pleasing whom or whatever it is that takes for us to get us there...is inherently our motivation. How do we know what that is? Is life just the summation of experiences and at some point we finally have an "ah-ha!" moment realizing what got us there? I refuse to accept that theory mainly because it doesn't allow any room for cognitive growth along the way. At the moment- this is my story and I am sticking with it. Our motivations have to lead us to do what makes us happy...both in the world around us and within ourselves. In the end, being content is clearly more complicated then a laundry list of things, but rather a unique puzzle  that allows us to be pleased with who we are and what we have. After writing this post, I've decided my motivation is the life I already have. Focusing on the positive, already great things in our life we already have can become one's motivation for more greatest and happiness in the future :)
xoxo AA