Driven

Last week, someone asked me where my inner drive comes from.

Drive is actually a very strange term. In a way, it sounds as if there is something that you can switch on and off.

I often used to answer these questions by referring to my purpose in life, but now I’m no longer sure if that’s really the answer. Because I also know enough people who are very aware of their purpose in life and yet seem to have very little drive.

Is it passion? Another interesting term. In German even more so than in many other languages – it is something that creates suffering. The English word passion also has this somewhat less noticeably in its Latin root.

So how can something that creates suffering (often primarily for ourselves) be a driving force?

The next word already comes to mind: challenge. So if something drives us that (initially) creates suffering, it can only have something to do with the fact that in order to really achieve something, you have to leave your comfort zone, consciously expose yourself to unpleasant things and overcome difficulties (suffering).

That sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

So if drive has something to do with facing challenges, it must be the unknown, the hard-to-reach, the transformation and the growth that drives us. That sounds counterintuitive, because these are the very things that stop most people from doing anything.

And yet I see time and again that this is exactly the case. That there are people who are driven by the challenges, the counter-pressure, the supposed “impossibility” of their mission to push themselves and surpass themselves.