How I came to this where I am

I was born in the fifties, at that time one of four children (we later added two more). My dad was a janitor, and my mom, like many of the people in our town, was an attendant at the local state mental hospital.

As you can imagine, with four kids we didn’t have a lot, but my parents gave me the stuff that money couldn’t buy, like lessons on how to live your life. One of my earliest memories, I must have been around four, is of my dad, after a hard day cleaning out toilets and mopping floors, sitting at the kitchen table, working on his correspondence course in electricity. The course, as I remember it, was a series of small, maybe 6” by 8” pamphlets that instructed him and tested him on all he needed to know to become an electrician. He completed the course, became an electrician apprentice, and later a journeyman electrician.

My mom wasn’t a slouch either. She went back to school and earned her bachelors degree in social work and moved up and out of the hospital. The lesson I learned from my parents was that if you are willing to work hard at something, you will succeed. I also learned that the harder you work, the better results you'll get.

My own life has confirmed the truth of this lesson. I have found that everything I have worked hard on I have accomplished. Though I had dropped out of my first college as my grades kept getting worse and worse, I discovered when I started working hard at my subsequent colleges (which included going to classes) suddenly I was successful. I also worked hard in law school, and graduated in the top third of my class. So the lesson I learned from my folks was true in my life as well.

However, while I was finishing up my bachelors and while I was working on my JD, I had a dream, a dream to be a professional speaker. In my dream I stood in front of crowds, teaching them something that would make their lives better. I knew that was what I wanted to do. But even though I knew that was what I wanted to do, and even though I had firmly integrated the lesson from my parents, I wasn’t doing the things that I needed to do to make my dream become real. And I was frustrated, and annoyed and bored. I knew I could do it, but I just wasn’t doing it!

After years of not going after what I knew I wanted, I decided something needed to change. Luckily (if you believe in luck) I just happened to be working on my masters in education and was studying the role of motivation in learning. I realized that even though I wanted to be a professional speaker, I wasn't motivated to be one. So after learning all I could about motivation in education, I expanded my study into motivation in sports and motivation in employment.

When I gathered enough information I created my own model of motivation, based upon my studies. This first model explained how one person could motivate another, whether it was a teacher motivating a student, a coach motivating an athlete, or a boss motivating a worker.

But I knew I wasn’t done, because I wasn’t interested in motivating someone else. I was interested in motivating myself. And so I modified my model and created the model for self motivation.

I have been using this model in my life and it has made all the difference. I now take the steps I need to take to make my dream come true. I have developed a niche and my book has been written. I blog and tweet and finetune my speeches in Toastmasters. I am making my dream become real.

I urge you to use the model for self motivation. Take those dreams, desires and aspirations that lay dormant in your mind, apply motivation to them, and make your dreams come true.

I did it, and so can you.