What I learned from "Finding my Drive"

How to not let the difficulties in life hold you back from why you are driven.

As the school year started, I was absolutely overwhelmed with my six-course load and extra curriculars. Every day, I kept thinking that I needed to find time for myself and take a break from school. Little did I realize that school just started and these experiences will continue for the rest of my life. Although there are many ways to manage priorities in life and resources offered for support, I felt that these were all temporary. Personally, I wanted to have a mindset where I would approach any difficult situations in life with passion and curiosity. That's when I came up with the idea of "Finding my Drive". In other words, I wanted to find a way to stay motivated by my work and most importantly, have a thirst for success. I knew that being driven will allow me to focus on something beyond my daily norms and push me forward.

So, what does it mean to find your drive? The idea of this is to find the true reason why you want to succeed. After asking this question, I had to find a way to understand myself, stay ambitious, motivated and consistent without letting the difficulties in life hold me back. Through reading books and attending conferences, I learned three ideas from mentors and applied these to change my lifestyle and mindset:

1. Finding your vision -

Although this can be a very cliché saying, finding a vision beyond what you already know can be the most challenging, yet rewarding feelings. A vision should be something that grows inside you and stays forever, rather than experiencing spikes of motivation. A vision moves with you, wakes with you, a vision that you can tap into when you feel low. This is that vision that will drive you forward. It doesn't have to be getting your dream job, or making a certain amount of money. It can be anything that you know you can do every day, putting one step forward, following your desires and walking right past your fears to achieve success. For me, my vision was expressing myself through writing. Although I never considered to be a good writer, I challenged myself to do it every day and be consistent, because it is what truly motivated me. I felt a sense of happiness and accomplishment by never giving up during the challenging times and continuing to inspire my community.

2. Understanding that Knowledge Compounds -

Every time I started a new project- either learning a new course or starting a side passion project, I always faced challenges. I either did not have the right skills or enough knowledge to accomplish my goal, at that particular time. But overtime, I realized that when you feel like you'll never understand something, the key is to realize that your knowledge will always compound. In other words, when you are having trouble comprehending a topic or article, the key is to keep reading, asking questions and working at it until you build a solid understanding. Giving up today is not the answer to anything, just because you don't know where you're going with it. You have to keep working at it, putting your best forward and learning as much as you can to fully be a master. For example, when it comes to courses that are very complex, it’s tough to fully go in depth and understand the concept. However, having "drive" means to always have the attitude of learning with curiosity- knowing that your efforts will never be a waste of time and what you learn will always grow.

3. Deserve what you want -

When you have a certain goal in mind and you want to achieve something, you deserve it and there is absolutely no excuse to second guess your worth. Nowadays, where there is so much competition and greed among people, it's so important to be confident and own everything you do. Whether it's applying for a job, stepping into a new role, or taking on a really challenging task, you should be confident that you will make the most out the experience. Keep in mind, confidence is one part of "deserving what you want". Most of it is recognizing what you are capable of and truly know what you should receive in return from the effort you put in. Sometimes it's hard to understand what exactly you want, versus what other people around you say you should do. This is one of the most dangerous feelings because eventually you will feel regret for taking actions that were fully in your control. When this happens, you lose track of your vision and fall into a path that is hard to get back up and move on from. Deserving what you want is crucial to following your gut feeling and knowing what is best for you.

Finding your vision is not the only answer to staying motivated, inspired and as I mentioned earlier, having a thirst for success. But, knowing your vision will guide you in the right path to ensure you are consistent with your goals. Now, going back to the question I asked earlier, “Why do you want to succeed”? Is it because of the money, experience, people you will meet or because you are truly passionate about your work? What are you going to do to achieve that success? And once you do, will you be satisfied? Knowing why you want to achieve something can be difficult. But if there is one thing to take away from this article, it’s that do not let the rough situations in life hold you back from driving forward- at the end of the day, you have full control over your actions to ensure you don’t fall into the wrong path.