Finding motivation
Finding motivation is one of the biggest differences between people who survive and people who really make something out of their lives. One way to find motivation is to better understand your link to your family’s past and your role in creating your family’s future. Here are some thoughts.
1. Looking at your family’s lineage
Years ago I remember a phone call with one of my older brothers and we were discussing what it meant to be a “Turi”. Being ten years older than I am he has a different take and is more in touch with our heritage and closer to our relatives than I have ever been. Here is what he told me. “The Turi’s have always been survivors. Most have never achieved a lot of success but they have found ways to survive.” I found that comment both liberating and motivating. It was liberating in that I understood that some of my struggles to succeed might be rooted in a family culture and perhaps even our DNA. It was motivating because I decided I wanted to change that. I wanted to change it for myself and for my children.
Years later that phone conversation continues to drive me. I think about what it is that “Turi’s” need to learn to make more of an impact in life and to be more successful. I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to learn to be more risk takers and to have more confidence in ourselves. My Dad was a great man who owned a deli in Hoboken New Jersey. He was a strong Catholic and did a lot for those less fortunate. He started a program where once a week he brought sandwiches to the homeless people in the Bowery in New York City. That program continued for years after he died. Yet I get the feeling that if he was more motivated and willing to take more risks he could have accomplished even more.
I think it is important to take a step back and look at your family lineage. While you may not know all of your relatives you have been shaped by the culture of your family heritage and their DNA. A part of who you are is based on great grand parents you may never have known.
There are three questions that could be helpful in understanding your heritage and finding motivation in it.
1. Looking at the generations of your family what is one word to you use to describe them?
2. What is it that your family (think not just your family but your family lineage) needs to learn to make more of an impact in the world?
3. What can you do today to begin changing your family’s heritage?
What this will do for you is to help you find motivation in your life. It will drive you to act and think in ways that you have been reluctant to do in the past. If you focus on this and keep this with you it can be that motivation that gets you to do a little extra everyday.
