What moves you?

We talk a lot about motivation.

How to get motivated. How to stay motivated. How to become more disciplined, ambitious, productive.

But I think there’s a question that should come before all of that:

Why do you want it in the first place?

Think of something you want right now. A goal, a career, a business, a body, a relationship, a certain kind of life.

Now ask yourself what is actually driving it.

Money? Curiosity? Ego? Fear? Recognition? Family? Insecurity? Obsession? Revenge? The need to prove something to yourself?

And whatever your answer is, don’t stop there.

Ask why again.

I’ve realized that curiosity is probably one of my biggest driving forces. If I’m hiking and there’s a questionable looking path that seems like I probably shouldn’t take it, I need to know what’s on the other side. If there’s someone interesting I could meet, I’ll send the email. If there’s somewhere I haven’t been, I want to know what it feels like to be there.

That instinct shows up everywhere in my life. I want to know what happens if I go.

But not every driver is that easy to romanticize.

Take recognition.

Imagine you built a company, but nobody could ever know you founded it. Your name wouldn’t be attached to it. You couldn’t post about it. Nobody would congratulate you.

Would you still want to build it?

If the answer is no, that’s interesting.

Maybe what you wanted wasn’t entirely the company. Maybe some part of what you wanted was being seen building the company.

That doesn’t automatically make the desire bad. It just gives you another question.

Why do you need the recognition?

Do you like being congratulated? Why?

Do you congratulate yourself enough?

Maybe it’s ego. But then… why the ego? Fear? Expectations? Something you said you would accomplish and now feel obligated to prove? Something you absorbed from your family, professors, friends, social media?

There is something incredibly powerful about telling yourself you’re going to do something and then actually doing it.

Wake up when you said you would. Make your bed. Go for the walk. Answer the email. Go to the gym. Make your own coffee. Finish the thing you promised yourself you would finish.

I deliberately put easy things on my to-do lists for this reason. I like checking things off. One accomplishment makes the next one feel a little easier.

But more importantly, every time you keep a promise to yourself, you collect evidence that you are someone you can rely on.

I think the important question is whether the driver evolves with you.

Because movement alone isn’t necessarily progress.

You can work, travel, create, consume, meet people and fill every hour of your life and still just be moving.

There needs to be some direction.

Not necessarily a perfectly constructed five-year plan. I don’t believe in over-planning your way through life either. But some sense of purpose. Something you’re moving toward, even if that thing changes.

And this is where I think introspection matters.

Wrestle with your answer.

What moves you?

What moved you yesterday?

What is moving you toward whatever comes next?

Is it intrinsic? Is it external? Has it changed? Is it something you actually want, or something you want people to know you have?

And then, whatever answer appears:

Why?

Then ask it again.