Thank you for such a wonderful introduction.
Great.
I'm here today to talk about motivation,
and I've learned in my few years on this earth
that motivation is really the key
to effecting change in anything that you do.
You can put a paper that was written without motivation, without any effort,
and a paper that was written with drive and passion
next to each other;
it's clear which one is the winner.
Motivation is the underlying factor,
I believe, in everything that we do on a daily basis.
If you don't have motivation in something that you do,
then you really can't achieve what it is that you want to achieve.
Everyone has motivation for things they're passionate about,
things that interest you, things that inspire you,
and of course you'll have motivation
if you play a sport, if you're in drama, if you're in a band,
you'll have motivation to accomplish that task.
But the true test of finding motivation
is if you can find it in something that doesn't interest you.
Personally, I'm interested in sitting through town council meetings
and reading the 404-page town of Barnstable budget.
But others might not find so much paper so interesting.
However, motivation can be found in everything that you do.
I like to look at it, in terms of finding motivation,
as just putting yourself in someone else's shoes.
When you're questioning, "Why do I have to do this?
Why do I have to put in the time and the effort?"
you can just look at what you're doing
and say, "This helps this person because ... "
or "This person is going to appreciate
my effort and my motivation on this task because ... "
And I've always found that that appreciation
that others have for the effort that you put in,
that's what motivates me,
the fact that someone is going to appreciate what I did.
So when the teacher gives you a paper or something to do,
and you say, "This is stupid. I have better things to do.
I'd much rather go outside and throw a football."
Whatever it is,
look at it and say, "This person is going to appreciate the work.
This person put in the effort to create the assignment.
Now they're going to see it and appreciate it."
I do that in every assignment I'm given
and everything that is ever brought before me.
And that's always something that I think we need to go out and look at
when we go out to tackle an issue.
Filing papers - people might not find it interesting.
But think about how much help you're doing to somebody else.
Think about the responsibility that you're helping someone else fulfill.
And that sort of help and appreciation motivates you.
For me, fine dressing is something that I like to do every single day,
and I don't just do it because I enjoy it; I do it because people appreciate it.
People see that I took the extra time
to prepare myself for whatever it is that I'm doing,
and they thank me for it, and that thanks, that appreciation,
is truly what motivates me to go out
and do whatever it is that is put before me.
So I want to finish briefly
just by saying that motivation is so important in anything that you do,
and without it, you really can't accomplish what you want,
but with it, you have the passion to effect change,
the passion to make a difference,
and you really do have the passion
to go out and change the way things are done
and make a difference in anything that you want to do.
Thank you for your time and your ears.
(Applause)