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Motivators Part One - Identifying Your Terminator

9:44:00 AM

John screams, "Put the gun down! NOW!" The Terminator sets the .45 on the sidewalk. John scoops it up fast then turns to the shocked civilians, who can't believe what just happened and says, "Walk away."

They do.  Fast. John grabs Terminator by the arm and tugs him toward the bike. John still holds the gun, reluctant to give it back.

"Jesus… you were gonna kill that guy!"
"Of course, I'm a terminator."
John stares at him. Having your own terminator just became a little less fun to him.
John, "Listen to me, very carefully, okay? You're not a terminator anymore, alright? You got that? You can't just go around killing people!"
'Whattaya mean, why? 'Cause you can't!"
"You just can't, okay? Trust me on this."

Terminator 2 was one of the best sci-fi films I had seen in my school days. Originally designed to end the human race, the terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) was sent back through time, reprogrammed to protect the future leader of the human race, John Connor (Edward Furlong). And till the very end, that program encoded internally motivated the terminator to protect John no matter what came in the way. Every one of us is into doing something: professional or at home. And each of us are driven by something or someone to keep doing it. Of course unlike the terminator which was a machine, we do not have computer programs encoded into us. But we do have what’s known as motivators to keep us going.

We've heard of motivational speakers, motivational books etc. And after listening or reading them, we are motivated to pursue what it is that we want to do. And perhaps without them, it’s actually possible to lose interest and thereby give up altogether what we once started.
So what really is a motivator? The Cambridge Business English dictionary puts it this way:

“A motivator is a person or thing that makes someone enthusiastic about doing something.”

We all have various motives for doing the things we do. We study to earn degrees that get us better jobs. We work full time and part time jobs to make money. The list is endless.

Take an inventory of the things you do, and be sure to find a motive behind it.

The trouble is not often in realizing whether or not we have a motive, it’s when the motive leads us to harm both ourselves and others in the process. Failing to identify that can cause us to lose everything we’ve ever held on to.

In other words, the thing that motivates us can end up becoming a terminator in our lives. And if something's not done quickly then there can be a point of no turning back. A motivator can become a terminator if we are not careful enough to identify it.

Identifying motives is not always easy. We often turn a blind eye to it. Many times, we become aware of our own motives when others point it out to us. That’s why it becomes important to have good friends who are not afraid to speak out the truth.

There are motives however that can harm us in the long run. We can term them negative motivators but here I would like to call them ‘terminators’.

Terminators terminate our good will, our relationships and overtime our lives.

There are many but I've identified 7 terminators if we are not careful can be lethal in the long run:

1.   Money- We search for jobs with a better payroll and that’s alright as long as it doesn’t become the main thing. Too many people do things today simply because they are driven by money and as a result over time, it causes them to undermine values and overlook relationships.

2.   Fear- While this seems to be a good motivator especially for those naughty kids at home; over time, it will lead to rebellion.

3.   Insecurity- Now this by far has to be the most subtle terminator. I've known too many people who do things as a result of insecurity. We are often blind to see this in our own lives. Insecurity causes us to be self-centered since we are always looking out for acceptance. And as a result, we get isolated from building healthy and strong relationships.

4.  Anger- Probably one of the worst motivators known. Anger motivates you to destroy things and people.

5.  Unforgiveness- Again while this remains very subtle, if not recognized, not only can it hurt the person carrying it but also the people around them.

6.   Jealousy- Too often we see this being played out in companies, midst co-workers and even between so called best friends. One is always trying to outdo the other.

7.   Guilt- Many people operate on guilt. Something that they had said or done in the past drives them to do things that they believe will square it off. Not the seven deadly sins you expected? I am sure at least once in our lives, one if not more of these had been the motive for certain things we had done. And in course of time seen the effects of it.

In my next post, I will write about positive motivators that will help us to look beyond these motives and help build ourselves and others around us.

How about you? Has one of these terminators ever affected you?



Tags: Identify, Motivators, Motive