Drive

Desire, want, hope…all emotions that seeks change for a perceived better.  “I have a desire to be better looking and have more money.”  “I have a deep-seated want to more gregarious.” “His hope is to achieve a medical breakthrough.”

None of those emotions come coupled with the drive to achieve the perceived better attached to the emotion. I want to be a respected writer.  But what am I doing to achieve respect?  What am I writing?  Without effort, there is no payoff; it is easy to dream, harder to do.   So, it seems, desire and its allies are related to, but not the same thing, as drive.   Drive is desire that has somehow triggered something akin to a need; I not only want water, I must have water.

I’ve heard foks ask, and attempt to answer, questions about how people “get” the drive to achieve their important desires.  In my opinion…as of this morning, anyway…you can’t “get” drive. It either is there, or it’s not. It may grow where once it did not exist, but you can’t just manufacture it.  It emerges like water from an existing spring; something may tap into that spring to cause drive to burst forth, but all the drilling in the world won’t find it if it’s not there.

All of this leads to the inevitable question: what drives me?  I honestly don’t know.  And I’m afraid the well may be dry.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
This entry was posted in Happiness, Philosophy, Self-discipline, Wisdom. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Drive

  1. Trish says:

    P.S. I state the previous comment based solely with personal experience..driven/drive…like sitting on hot coals, and the fire will not cease until one has arrived to that meeting…that is drive….

  2. Trish says:

    I would venture to say, “burning desire” will drive one to their objective. I’m not very convinced of neanderthal wall painting…I have my reservations. Nevertheless, I feel that the “drive” is propelled by the intense desire to do so. Where does this come from? Perhaps, and I believe one might need to experience “tunnel vision” to accomplish it. That might be the drive, When you arrived to that state of being that you are 100% convinced of what you are driven towards.

  3. juan says:

    Great post, John!

    There are some things come natural, that come as some inner demand — a demand that never gets satisfied.

    How do I put this?

    If we were old-age neanderthals, you would be the one scrawling pictures on the cave wall, possibly doing hand prints. 😉

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