How do fun, remuneration and competition serve as motivators in your life?

I was just thinking about free time and how a lot of people in my native culture think that is a dangerous thing. People with time on their hands get into mischief. Then again, the more time you have, the more recreational or creative activities you can engage in. You might have more fun!

Work, of course, is one way of trying to get yourself what you need to live, or to live comfortably, or to live extravagantly. Work can also be fun. Many people are motivated by the joy they find in doing the work.

Competition is related to work, but I think some people take it as a mantra. They must always compete to be on top. Keeping up with the Joneses is what makes them happy. Proving how good and how well off they are what drives them.

I’m sure we all have different mixes of these motivators in our lives, but I don’t know if it’s possible to tease out the role each plays in your life. I’d like you to try.

For me, fun is the biggest motivator. I want to make music. I want to fluther. I want to go on vacations and travel and see things. I want to lie down in a hammock with a great book and the woman I love and have enough privacy that we can do whatever we want, should the fancy strike.

Of course, the only way to get the resources needed to do that is through work. But I enjoy my work, too.

Competition is something that runs deeply in me and I hate it. I always want to be the best—it has to do with my upbringing and it isn’t a pleasant thing for me. Competition was always a no-win situation for me because no matter how well I did, even if it was better than everybody else, it wasn’t good enough. That made it a tad bit problematic to feel good about myself.

How do these things play out in your life?