What Drives You?

I don't like free time...it throws off my schedule and usually ends with me wasting money or eating paradise bakery cookies, typically my days start at 5am and end at 8pm but last Thursday I got out at 5….wasn’t sure what to do with myself since I'd already finished my daily workout, finished my studies, and I didn’t want to go home just yet so I went to the mall for a bit and ran into my old fraternity brother Manuelito “toon-tizzle” Camarillo.  You may not know Toon-Tizzle but he’s a pretty awesome guy; smart, funny, ambitious, and he’s single….ladies???  I also enjoy hanging out with Toon Tizzle since he’s 1 out of like 3 guys I know who is actually shorter than me.  So we thought we’d grab dinner since neither of us had eaten and hadn’t seen each other in a while so we head off for fajitas and brews…well he drank a brew and I was the asshole at the bar with an iced tea….you know…that dude.  

We discuss everything from relationships, investments, working, and books…then Toon Tizzle told me that he considered me a pretty driven and motivated individual and posed an interesting question and one that stumped me quite a bit, he asked me what drives me and pushes me to follow my passion, what motivates me to succeed….it was a pretty thought provoking question to ask over fajitas and black beans and it took me a moment to process but I figured I give it a shot…I also think this is a question that everyone should ask themselves…While I only mentioned a few sentences that day, here’s my response to the question now that I’ve had the chance to think it through.

I always want to improve, there is no facet of my life that I’m content with and I hope I’ll never get to a point in my life that I’m satisfied.  There is always more weight to be lifted, more money to be made, more mountains to be moved, and more knowledge to attain.  There’s no such thing as perfect and considering anything in my life as such will probably lead to my downfall.  I will always strive for more.  I don’t really care about becoming incredibly rich but I do know what it’s like to be broke…to have nothing in your bank account, no income, unpaid bills, scrambled eggs for every meal and I never want to be like that again, so I work….I work my ass off so I can pay my bills, eat organic food, and enjoy nights out with friends and not worry if I have enough in my bank account.  Samee is one of my biggest motivations to succeed and is probably one of the reasons I have the work ethic that I do today.  While I have no desire to be the next Warren Buffet, I intend to make enough money to take Samee to Disneyland whenever the hell he wants and give him a comfortable life.  My clients are part of my motivation as well, I count their successes as my own; every pound lost, every weight lifted, every tenth of a second I take off their 40 add to my success and put a smile on my just as much as any paycheck.  

I work hard in every aspect of my life because I hate laziness….I despise people who say they want something and do nothing to get it.  You want to be rich yet you sit on your ass doing nothing, you want to be in shape yet you haven’t been to the gym in months, you want a 4.0 GPA, yet you dick around not studying and not doing your homework.   I don’t like sitting around waiting for what I want to fall in my lap because I know it never will. 

I don’t need the Rocky theme song blaring in my head 24/7 to feel constantly pumped and charged to take on every new challenge but I look at my completing my goals as a necessity, not a choice.  Truth be told, there are days I want to sleep in past 4:30, days I don’t feel like working out, I don’t feel like studying, and when I don’t want to make my meals and would rather have a cheesecake for lunch…then I stop being a pussy and remind myself of my goals...no one is going to give me money, no one is going to deadlift 500lbs for me, no one is going to lower my body fat percentage, and no one is going to give me an A+.  I remind myself that every decision I make at any given moment of every day is affecting my goals, either taking a step  forward or a step back and that I can’t afford to make any slip ups.

"It is only through work and strife that either nation or individual moves on to greatness. The great man is always the man of mighty effort, and usually the man whom grinding need has trained to mighty effort."

So, what drives you to succeed?