What drives us to continue moving forward? What makes us push ourselves to higher limits?
There are genetic components to improving ourselves. Early humans needed to work together to improve their tribes, and find ways to gain resources more effectively than other tribes. It also came down to the individual to prove themselves as leaders within their own tribes. Those who were successful at improving their position, and that of their tribe, would be more successful in reproducing.
Nature programmed us this way.
What's inherent to us deep in our primitive brain may not always be quite as automatic in the modern world. The rewards of our work are seen as drivers of what we do on a daily basis. Many of those rewards are not immediate; delayed gratification has become a more prominent concept in today's world, and conflicts with the natural instinct of driving our actions based on instant rewards.
However, gratification does not always have to come from outcomes. After all, it is the process of progressing and improving which makes us uniquely human. The rewards may come in time; but there is much to learn in our journey to reach our goals. The lessons we learn while we strive are priceless, and are what shape us as people.
My personal motivations
My motivations for what I do include supporting my family. Another motivation includes all of the incredible information that I learn while working. On a shorter time frame, the ability to directly help people is a motivator for me to be able to work inhumane hours, and the few times that the work appears to pay off are truly priceless.
What are your motivations? What drives you to keep going?
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