Why are you doing that?

I have done a few presentations and completed graduate research on the topic- yet it still occasionally keeps me up at night. I have learned much about motivation over the years, and know enough about it to understand I am amateur in the field of study. Those that believe motivation is something that you do to someone typically subscribe to the manipulate/control school of motivation; those that believe it is something that happens within people would be on the barrier removal/empower side or enabling school of motivation. Without delving in to extrinsic or intrinsic motivation, I believe a motivated individual says “I want to” versus “I have to.”

I believe once an individual discovers this knowledge, one begins to understand what is happening to them and what they are doing to others; it can have powerful effects on everything from your political affiliation to career choice, or even your worldview. It has the potential to free your mind, and make life more like a permanent vacation than an endless cycle of have to do’s followed by a brief pause of want to do’s.

Some researchers claim the productivity and quality difference between those that “have to” and those that “want to” is astronomical. We really don’t need to have researchers tell us that, as the evidence is all around us. Find the latest medical break through, the last world record in sports, a perfect game in baseball, or an architectural masterpiece, and what is typically discovered is that the authors of such masterpieces were passionately consumed with a desire, or “want to” improve.

You’ve heard the saying- “do something you love and you will never work a day in your life.” Fortunately this isn’t just about work. How do we get there from here, or are you already there? Do you wake up on enthusiastic “want to” fire to do everything you do throughout your day, week, or month? What if your daily to do list was all “want to do’s” instead of “have to do’s?” Is it possible? What one thing in your life would make the biggest impact if it moved from a “have to” to a “want to?” Is it work? School? Worship? A relationship? Your physical health? Something else?

What are the ramifications of a life full of have to do’s versus want to do’s, and vice versa? Could heaven be a world of want to do’s , and hell have to do’s- if the wants were aligned with the will of our creator? What is the will of our creator- His commandment to love one another?

Is it possible that there is a way to get there, and the path to “want to” is made with the choices we make, and the faith we have?

More to come…

Philippe Asselin





Philippe Asselin is a constant sight in and around the waters of the Gulf Coast. If it is shin high to quadruple overhead he's in the line up. He was the First person I paddled up to when I got up the nerve to actually surf with other people. It was this relationship and the ones that came from it that opened up the world of surfing to me. Phillipe lives in Panama City, FL with his wife and two kids. ~Brett