Growing in Three Motivational Categories

What fresh beginning did you enter recently? How is it going for you? Last week I started a fresh beginning with my second Toastmasters Educational Pathway—Motivational Strategies. I chose the pathway after taking an online assessment and consulting with our Destin-South Walton club’s Vice President of Education.

The program will help build my skills as an effective communicator with projects that focus on developing strategies for enhancing connections with people, understanding motivation, and leading small groups to accomplish tasks. The projects lead toward a comprehensive concluding team-building project that utilizes my leadership and communication skills.

I started my fresh beginning by identifying twelve motivational areas in my life. They are self, education, faith, athletics, finances, marriage, parenting, ministry, historical research, writing, retirement, and health. Upon further reflection, I grouped these twelve areas into three categories: self, others, and world.

The first category ‘Self’ motivated me very much in my younger years. I am still interested in myself, but in a more holistic way. I tend to be a lone ranger and Toastmasters helps me become a better team player.

After I started trusting in Jesus Christ as an 18-year old, other priorities became more important to me than myself. I learned how to take a sincere interest in other people. Faith expanded my concern and engagement with the world, especially through mission trips to different regions of the world, such as Nicaragua, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, and India. I am learning how the three categories, self, others, and world, complement each other and how to prioritize them based on my present circumstances.

I received a text a week ago from a neighbor inquiring if I could help him move some heavy parts of a new hot tub to his backyard. My first thought was yes, but then I thought about the heat and humidity outside. I had recently taken a shower. I knew if I went to help, I’d sweat again. I didn’t like that idea. But do you know what? His request for help became more important to me than not sweating.

Depending on our circumstances, self takes precedence. In different circumstances, others are primary.  Other people may actually be the  world at large that needs my attention.

My wife and I recently took road trip that included a stop in Huntington, West Virginia. We visited a family we met in Hyderabad, India several years ago. The wife is completing a PhD program at Marshall University. We talked about India and the wife’s recent job offer in Ohio. At the conclusion of our visit, Jan and I prayed with the family before we said goodbye.

We are committed to giving money to various charity organizations. We try to balance the distribution of funds to local, region, country, and overseas ministries that balances others and the world. Our understanding of God’s priorities motivates us to remember local, regional, and global opportunities and needs.

My tag line in my email signature is “Everyone’s Story Is Worth Knowing.” The statement motivates me to take a sincere interest in others. Jan and I waited for our son and his fiancé to arrive at a restaurant in Kittery, Maine. A father and young daughter joined me on the bench I was sitting on. I started a conversation with the father by telling him I was from the Florida Panhandle and then asking where he was from. He was from Connecticut. His wife grew up in the Atlanta area. Guess where she and her family vacationed while she was growing up? Yes, on the Panhandle where we live.

The three motivational areas self, others, and world energize me. I started a fresh beginning in my new pathway in Toastmasters. Guess who I get to partner with to complete it? That’s right, my Destin-South Walton Toastmaster Club members. While I grow in learning about and using motivational strategies, I invited them to grow with me. Who can enrich your fresh beginning?