In my opinion, motivation is the driving force in getting an individual through each day. Motivation is needed in the simplest of instances, as well as in major aspects of our lives. Something as simple as getting out of bed in the morning requires some motivation. If you have no motivation and nothing to look forward to then it will be very difficult to get yourself out of that bed. If you are lazy and don’t aspire to do anything then you will never amount to anything. This is why you need to have a goal and something to look forward to which will give you that drive or motivation to give it your all. I feel that motivation is instilled in us at a very young age. Our parents set goals for us and want us to accomplish certain things and then they motivate us to reach these goals. As children, motivation can come in the form of reward. Our parents want us to reach these certain goals or achievements in a timely fashion. They motivate us by promising us such things as toys, sweets, or even money which will make us work hard to get that reward. As we grow older, the reward may turn into a punishment. Our parents expect us to reach certain goals and excel in school. If we begin to falter or our grades begin to slowly deteriorate then our parents will instill punishments. This can come in a way of decreasing or cutting off your allowance, taking away a gaming system, or taking away other privileges which you look forward to having each day. This will motivate the child to study harder, work harder, and get his/her grades back up so he/she will no longer be punished. It isn’t until our adolescent years that we begin to set our own goals for the future and begin working to achieve these goals. Some of these goals may come as hopes and dreams and that is fine. It is good to dream and to shoot for the stars. This is where we begin to motivate ourselves and really begin our hard work to reach these desires, dreams, and goals. Keeping in mind what our parents taught us as children, we can now utilize motivation to help us reach these accomplishments. We may begin to take interest in certain subjects in high school and not care so much for other subjects. When we are in the classes we do not care much for, it is hard to keep your mind from wandering and thinking about other things. No matter what you do to try to pay attention it is difficult to motivate yourself and stay focused on the material at hand. However, you always have in the back of your mind, what your parents instilled in you in regard to achieving good grades and succeeding in life. Now on the other side, the classes which we develop a high interest in, we do not require much motivation to excel in. If you have a general liking of the subject matter and the teacher teaching the class then that is motivation in itself. Moving on to our college years, we now have a mindset on what we wish to study and become familiar with as it pertains to our future. This is where we establish ourselves with life paths and lay a foundation for our future. We challenge ourselves with a strenuous curriculum which requires much hard work and long days of studying. We familiarize ourselves with the material at hand in an effort to be better prepared for the real world. After all, it is this material and knowledge which is laying the ground work for what a waits in our future. It is this futuristic vision and goal which motivates us to wake up, go to class, and pay attention so that you can be better than the competition when it comes time to applying for jobs. There are others with similar dreams and goals who are also working hard to succeed. Odds are they also grew up in this chain of motivation which started with their parents. It is now up to these individuals to motivate themselves to be better than the other person and achieve what they have been striving for their whole life. Finally, we arrive at the stage of our life which we have been working so hard to get to. This stage is beating the competition and being hired for the position you have been working hard to get to. You put all of your blood and sweat into all of that hard work to get to this point. You would think that motivation would no longer be needed to wake up each day and go do what you love, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Now that you have the career you want, you need to make new goals and continue to motivate yourself to reach these goals. In conclusion, I just want to reiterate that hard work along with motivation will allow you to achieve any dream or goal. Anything you put your mind to and strive for can be accomplished. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise and remember that the sky is the limit.