What motivates me?

What motivates me? What keeps me going, what makes me focus on my passion, what makes me strive for more? To be more? What keeps me from the soul crushing routine of day to day life? What makes me want to learn about new things, or try new things?

Is it self-respect? Is it adrenalin? Is it the need to show other people? Is it a narcissistic desire to be the best, ever, at everything? Or is it because it brings me inner peace?

What juices up my life and what does it inspire me to do?

Victoria, a fellow writer and blogger, asked these questions recently on her blog, The Musings of a LesbianWriter. They made me think about my own motivations so I rewrote the questions, directing them towards myself.

With my passion for photography, my motivation has always been a deep desire to show others the beauty in this world. Since shifting my photography focus from landscape to people and street photography, I've noticed that my the fires of my passion have been stoked, so to speak. I'm not sure if it's about learning something new but I find myself almost obsessed over learning how to take better photographs of people. Photographs that tell a story or bring out someone's beauty is what fuels me and motivates me to pursue this art form.

With writing, I have this deep need to share my story. Perhaps it stems from the lesson and power of story sharing that I learned while in Alateen traveling around to “the big meetings” sharing my story with everyone. I was speaking in front of rooms of 50 to 100 people when I was 16 years-old. Sharing my very personal story of growing up with alcoholic parents with them was a huge release for me. I felt validated, loved, accepted and supported by everyone in the room. People would come up to me afterwords and thank me for sharing my story with them.

Maybe it comes down to that. Feeling validated, loved, accepted and supported. It's something we all need. In helping people not feel so alone, perhaps it helps them to feel a bit more validated, loved, accepted and supported.

Some of us live so much in our heads that we really think we're the only ones who feel a certain way when in reality, if you feel that way, chances are someone else does, too.