Driven to Success

How often over the course of our lives have we heard that “motivation is the key to success?” A gazillion-billion times, right? And from countless authors and famous motivational gurus, all of whom way smarter than me.

But you know what?

I disagree. Totally.

Motivation might get you started. That’s it. Now what?

First of all, let me say that I believe there are two basic motivators:

One is the desire to obtain, achieve or get something; and

The other is the fear of losing something.

Regardless of which one applies to an individual in any given situation — whether to obtain, achieve or get something, or the fear of losing something — to be motivated in either of those directions is just what STARTS you thinking in either of those directions. What actually GETS you to move in either direction is commitment toward its end result, discipline throughout all the stages and steps necessary towards its end result, and, most important of all, is DRIVE.

“Driven” is a word we use to describe people who have experienced a great deal of success in life. Did you ever wonder why we use that word to describe those kinds of folks? I mean, we don’t say they were “Pushed” or “Moved” or some other word to describe how they got from point A to point B. No. They were “driven;” they were absolutely determined to achieve something and/or to be successful. All their effort was directed towards achieving a particular result.

And, in the end, no matter WHAT result they strove for, no matter how different their aims might have been, two personality traits that all driven people share are: They are passionate; and they are focused on learning and understanding.

Everything I just spoke about also applies to achieving long-desired success at weight loss. Being driven towards that end means no longer letting your potential, and everyone has it, to be slim and healthy be controlled by anything other than your conscious habits and active choices.

Regardless of your initial motivator — to achieve or get something, or a fear of losing something — being driven to a dietary/lifestyle change and to healthy, sustainable weight loss once and for all means not remaining latent. It means believing that things can change, and you are the one who can change them.

It means taking a pile of bricks and building a house. One brick at a time. One day at a time.