What Drives You?

[wantonebad]

The ability to get laid... oh and really good whiskey

[rolexinfl]

Nothing pushes me. I just 'do'.

I guess, you could say, my ideals on how my life should be at any given time guide my decisions? But, thats about it.

[Laszlo]

Work. I absolutely love to work.

[swils8610]

Not sure...my dad worked hard his entire life until he retired in 1998 as did my grandfather and great grandfather. They set good examples which I follow. I enjoy my job...I’ve always had a job since 10 or 11 years old. Cutting grass in the neighborhood, shoveling snow...then part time jobs through school. Good work ethic I suppose. I know nothing else. I was fortunate to have good role models and a solid traditional old school upbringing.


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[ashbaug2]

I'm going to chime in on this dying thread...

My biggest motivator was/is my dad. He busted his butt as a young man, joined the Air Force during Vietnam and became a security police dog handler, all to further his goal of becoming a cop. When he left the Air Force and married my mom, that's exactly what he became. He went to night classes on the GI Bill, worked graveyard shift as a deputy sheriff, then came home and studied (this was back in the 70s, before my time). Then he came down with Hodgkins lymphoma, attributed now to Agent Orange exposure, and during the day drove himself to Stanford (from Stockton, CA) almost every day for radiation treatment. He beat the cancer and continued working and going to school; he graduated with his bachelor's in Criminal Justice, then shortly afterward was shot in the knee. 8 years at his dream job and he was done. Everything after that was second fiddle. He didn't bemoan his situation, there was never any self pity, but the older I got the more I understood he was doing something he never enjoyed, and never could, because his heart lay elsewhere. Luckily, his hard work allowed him and my mom to retire earlier than planned (plus a good VA settlement and backpay from his first Agent Orange illness claim...). We lost him two years ago.

My point is that I have the opportunity to do what I love, and what I am actually good at. I enjoy it, it (more than) pays our bills, and most importantly, it is fulfilling. My wife dislikes how much I travel and me getting deployed, but I could never do something that I'm not happy with just for the sake of making someone else happy. She'll live, and we'll survive. So really, my drive is to do the things that matter to me, because someone I love wasn't able to do the things they loved, and that's what he wanted for all of us to achieve.

I realize this sounds pretty selfish, but it sounded less selfish in my head. I just hope to teach my son the same lessons in life one day, selfish or not.