Do You Know What Drives You?

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

“My life is my message.” - Mahatma Ghandi

Everyone’s life is driven by something. People can be driven by their problems, deadlines, a painful memory, haunting fears, or by some subconscious belief.  Rick Warren mentions five common (yet negative) motivations that can “drive” a person:

1)

Guilt

:  These individuals spend their life running from past regrets and hiding under the covers of shame.  Guilt-driven people are imprisoned by past failures, and thus are unable to embrace a new future.  Many times they unconsciously “punish” themselves by sabotaging their own success.  ** We may be products of our past, but we don’t have to be imprisoned by it.  Moses’ past included murderer - yet he later led an entire nation from slavery into freedom. 

2)

Resentment and Anger

:  These people are addicted to past hurts.  Instead of releasing their pain through offering grace and forgiveness, they choose to relive a hurtful situation over and over in their minds.  Those who hurt us in the past cannot continue to do us damage unless we choose intoxicate ourselves with resentment.  The Bible says, “To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.” (Job 5:2)

3)

Fear

:  Fear-driven people miss great opportunities because they are too afraid to venture out into the unknown. Instead of embracing the future, they prefer to play it safe and maintain the status quo.  Fear is a self-imposed prison that will keep a person from becoming all that God intends them to be.  We must step into our fears with the weapons of faith and perseverance.
4)

Materialism

:  The drive to always want more “stuff” is based on a misconception that having more will make us more happy, more important, and more secure - but all three beliefs are not true.  Self-worth and net-worth are not related. 

5)

Need for approval

:  These individuals allow the expectations of others to control their lives.  I don’t know every key to success, but one key of failure is to try to please everyone.  Being controlled by the opinions of others is a sure way to miss our purpose in life - as we instead constantly wonder around looking for the approval of… anybody. 

** What has been “driving” you lately?