Self-motivation | Brendan Clark | TEDxYouth@BarnstableHS

Youth speaker Brendan Clark shares his philosophy of motivation and the winning strategy. Brendan is a high school student and director of the Barnstable Youth Council.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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)