Living an Inspired Life Will Inspire Others…

Proper motivation is necessary to becoming a leader. True leadership respects the source and flow of motivation and maintains balance by ensuring the wells that feed the fountains never run dry.
Motivation is the greatest force behind true leadership and becoming a leader requires knowing where motivation begins and how it flows.

Becoming a leader involves understanding that these fountains contain the water you must drink from; they must never run dry.

The term ‘self made’ is incongruous with what really happens on the road to success. Successful entrepreneurs need the motivational influences outside of themselves in proper balance and alignment.

The 5 Fountains of Motivation

This list is created in order and each fountain fills the next:

1.    Spiritual motivation
2.    Professional motivation
3.    Personal motivation
4.    Social motivation
5.    Charitable motivation

These fountains spring from the wells that supply the waters of motivation. Leadership flourishes or withers depending upon the depth of each well.

Spiritual Motivation

You may or may not resonate with the most powerful motivational force in existence but people of faith have an advantage when it comes to leadership.

People who learn to worship a perfect leader that cannot be equaled are drawn toward a level of perfection they can never attain. This is motivation at its zenith; the well that never runs dry.

Simply trying to wrap your mind around the infinite will motivate you to get creative. The farther you look outward into space or inward toward subatomic particles your mind is flooded with inspiration and flows freely.

Professional Motivation

When you’re already aiming for a standard, higher than any human standard, professional conduct and integrity will define your business affairs. Your posture as a leader is subjective to and reflects a higher authority.

You begin to see the flow of motivation from a continuous eternal source that is able to fill every other well of motivation.

Your drive to provide the best possible product or service continuously feeds your sense of purpose and meaning.

Personal Motivation

If you find yourself unmotivated or lethargic you should always check the first two wells. Leaders know how to keep their tanks full.

Personal motivation is an extension of a greater purpose and should not be treated as your primary focus. You are inspired and become an inspiration because you are fed and therefore can feed.

We are not meant to be on the top rung. It is a precarious position that is not only self-destructive but affects the wells that actually do lie below us.

Social Motivation

Personal motivation feeds self assurance but if you allow social motivation to fill that tank you subject yourself to peer pressure. Leaders don’t follow the crowd.

Placing the emphasis on what people want above our personal, professional or spiritual integrity is a dangerous proposition. What people want isn’t always what’s best for them and following this cycle leads to costly consequences.

The want for cheaper food leads to poor nutrition, which leads to weakness, illness and disease; society doesn’t always want what it should. A leader is socially motivated based upon the greater good and draws from the previous three wells to meet specific needs.

Charitable Motivation

When you’ve maintained the wells from which motivation springs the end result is abundance of both time and resources. Charity is dependent upon leaders who can optimize schedules and finances.

You can see evidence of improper motivation in landfills strewn with stuff that was purchased and discarded. Shortages in food banks and escalating debt are also signs that motivation is unbalanced.

If you arrive at the point of wanting to give but have nothing to give it is never because of a lack of charitable motivation. Becoming a leader by following this pattern means your capacity to give will always increase.

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