I recently watched a TED talk video on “Success, failure, and the drive to keep creating” (1). That’s a little ambiguous to throw out here, but the main point of the video focused on the process of identifying our inner motivation. Some people may fail a million times then lose their directional motivation, while others who have succeeded may have a harder time at grasping their next big goal.

While trying to absorb this all in, I realized that I too am stuck in figuring out my next big goal. And the biggest problem I have to admit is that I can no longer feel a motivational strength in me. Rewind back to a year ago when I felt unhappy and dissatisfied with my life, at least then, I had that fire in me that pushed me to do all that I can in order to change the state I was in and get to where I am today. A year later, feeling somewhat “rewarded” or maybe “successful”, my trade-off ended up being losing my flame.

In the textbook, motivation is described as “the intensity, direction, and persistence of effort a person shows in reaching a goal” (2). Especially after watching this TED talk, I found this rather vague of a definition. Questions arose in my mind, such as “What is the prequel to feeling motivated?”, “How do we remain persistent?”, or “Where and/or how can one find that feeling before becoming intrinsically motivated?”.

Not only did I find Elizabeth Gilbert’s (the author of Eat, Pray, Love) example tremendously empowering, but it also answered my questions.

We find our motivation by going back to the very beginning, the initial person we were and the feelings we felt during our times of value. It helps us understand what defines our “home” because that is what ultimately inspires, and encourages us to chase after our dreams. Our home could be anything we can think of, as long as we know that we love our “home” more than we could ever love ourselves. I believe this is essentially the remedy to keeping our flames burning and striking our continual motivation to achieve the next big thing. Thanks to Elizabeth, I’ve realized what my home is and I’m more than confident in chasing after for it.

1. Gilbert, Elizabeth. “Success, Failures and the drive to keep creating.” TED Talk Conference, March 2014, Vancouver, BC.
2. Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 128.