John Fellows Blog

Meir Ezra - Is making money your top goal? Is it your primary motivation? If so, you may get rich, but you may not be satisfied with life. You may not have a good marriage or happy family. You may not make any difference in the world.

In fact, if money is not your only motivation, you might get rich . . . and be happy!

There's a big difference between getting money just to have money, and earning money to finance a greater cause or create a bigger benefit. How does this work?

"Money is important in the world. But it is the grease on the machinery, not the motors."

"There is nothing wrong with having lots of money. There is everything wrong with having no money. But to work only for money is the dreariest thing there is, very short term indeed."

"The weakest motivation is money. People and businesses that are motivated only by money are wobbly people."

"The scale of motivation from the highest to the lowest is:

"Duty -- highest

"Personal Conviction

"Personal Gain

"Money -- lowest" -- L. Ron Hubbard

Let's examine these four types of motivation.

1. Money Motivation (lowest): You do whatever it takes to get and keep money. You only do things for money. Even if you hate the work, you do what you need to do for the money.

You do not care if you do a good job or not, as long as you get the money. You believe that if some action gets you money, it's a good thing, no matter what is involved. Lying, cheating and stealing are okay in your mind, as long as the money comes to you.

1. Personal Gain Motivation: You work for your own health and happiness. Your personal success, personal power and personal standard of living are more important to you than anything else. You do not care about others' personal gain, just your own.

1. Personal Conviction Motivation: You are convinced of the value or rightness of an idea or purpose and work to support that idea. For example, you feel strongly about the need for your company's service or product in the world and do all you can to get others to agree with your view. You take great pride in following your ideas.

1. Duty Motivation (highest): You work for a greater purpose than yourself alone. You are motivated to improve the world; to support your country as a patriot; or to expand your group as a devoted member. For example, people who work for nonprofit organizations, to fight hunger, diseases or poverty are often motivated by duty.

When someone pretends to be motivated by a higher motivation, he or she fails. For example, a politician's duty is to support the people he or she represents. If instead, the politician is found to be using the position just to get money, that politician is kicked out of office.

However, a duty-motivated leader who works hard to accomplish that duty, has nothing to hide. His or her actions are consistently directed toward the purpose or duty. You can see statistical evidence of these accomplishments in terms of lives saved, people helped, children educated and so on.

The higher your motivation, the more energy you feel. You can work longer hours, do a better job and have more fun when you are motivated by a duty or personal conviction.

Recommendations

Make a list of your purposes that are greater than yourself. Which of these interest and excite you? How can you spend more time working on them?

If you think you are working just for money, take another look at your motivations. In many cases, you may find you are more motivated to make money for other reasons. These other reasons are your real motivations.

Focus on them and strengthen them and you will feel more motivated than ever!