Enthusiasm and motivation never stay the same. Almost daily they are on different levels. Some days I don´t want to get up in the morning. There are moments when I don´t want to leave the house. I experience workdays where I don´t want to move on but just want to run away.
Albert Einstein said "People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results." If you´re dealing with people quite often the opposite is true: Success comes late, sometimes never at all.
In my life I identified three things that help me to stay motivated and keep me excited. Probably there are more but these are my top 3:
Work for something bigger than yourself
When I moved to Berlin six years ago I was totally overwhelmed for the first few months. Almost every day I asked myself: "What kind of difference can you make in a city like this?" This thought hasn´t fully left yet.
Every time again I think about this story: A single man plants an oak forest by putting acorns into the ground year after year. By doing this he creates an living environment where people and animals enjoy living again.
My work has a higher purpose and will remain even when I will be gone.
Never stop dreaming of a brighter future
"Vision needs to change because every single day it becomes more and more reality." Something like this is what Joel Holm said when he once visited Berlin. In the last couple of years I reached some goals I set a long time ago. I had dreamed of getting married and having a family as well as finishing my pastoral training.
The question is now: What to aim for in the next five to ten years? That´s something I am thinking of at the moment. It would be easy to be content and to get settled. But I am sure that the future holds greater things.
Keep getting inspired
Reading books helps me a lot. As soon as I get a new recommendation I take notes on title and author. I keep a special list for this on my smartphone.
It´s not about reading as much as you can but about reading the right stuff. Although I serve as a pastor and youth leader I read many different books. Generally I search for new books while being quite open minded: If the title and content sound interesting, I don´t care about the category of the book. It could be worth buying and reading.
One of the books I read recently is called "Twitter for Good" by Claire Diaz-Ortiz. She describes in an exciting way how mainly non-profit organizations can get the best out of the social network.
Keeping the excitement up is worth the effort. Because you and me serving people every day makes the world a better place.
How do you keep up the excitement in your life? I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
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