I recently noticed one of those “This Day In History” blurbs in a newspaper.
It mentioned an October date in 1993. The reference was this: Michael Jordan retired from professional basketball, saying, “I don’t have anything else to prove,” only to return in March 1995.
I didn’t care so much that he came back from retirement. It seems like half of those guys who say they are retiring, return to the sport the following year. Rock stars do the same thing. “This is our last tour. We’re playing our last song.” And then Viola’. Two years later they are cutting a new album.
It is easy to figure out. When people love what they do, they normally come back to it. That’s the Pollyanna version. The second likely scenario is that they need more money.
But. Setting that all aside. Back to Michael Jordan. He left professional basketball, saying, “I don’t have anything else to prove.”
Which brings me to my question.
Is that the only reason he played? Was he playing basketball all those years to prove something? It seems odd to me that that would be someone’s motivation. Granted, he was one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He holds the NBA records for career regular season scoring average (30.1 points per game) and career playoff scoring average (33.4 points per game). And he had a command of the game like no other. But was all of it just to prove himself to someone? To the world?
Motivation. It is quite a thing.
Why do we do what we do? Why do we garden? Or bake? Or earn our Physics degree? Or volunteer at the Blood Bank? Or work on cars? Why do I write?
After giving it much thought, it is obvious that motivation comes with different reasons for everything.
We work at the soup kitchen because we want to help others.
We garden because we enjoy it, and in doing so, we help ourselves.
We knit because it relaxes us. Or perhaps we like to give away our knitted goods to others. Or do we do these things for completely different reasons than I mentioned here?
And, I suppose, sometimes we do things to prove something.
Motivation is key. As they say. It is the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. Without motivation, nothing would get done. Not anywhere. Not anytime. Otherwise, we sit still, unmoving in any direction.
We have to move ourselves to do.
Do-dah.
Do-dah.
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“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.” — Vince Lombardi
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“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” — Henry Ford
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“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar
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Slam Dunk. Our motivation for all we do.
