Motivation

Motivation. Motivation is an interesting thing. In high school, I was motivated to be a part of everything. I was in theater, played volleyball, basketball, ran track, president of Amnesty International, played piano and hand bells at church, participated in various/many community service activities, and on top of that laundry list I was able to be a straight A student. Then in college, I continued my strong will for involvement. I joined a sorority, was a member of various clubs and organizations, had a part time job, was a straight A student and managed to have a social life. Now, I am in the "real world" and my motivation has gone to the way side, or at least outside of work.

Its interesting, because I looked up the synonyms of motivation, and the words "incentive, inspiration, reason, ambition and determination" show up. I feel like I have a lot of these words. I have ambition and determination. And I have a reason for my ambition. I want a successful career. I want to challenge myself every day. I want to find something I enjoy. I want to learn and travel. I have plans. General plans, but plans, and a dream. Yet, apparently (despite what the thesaurus) I lack motivation to get to where I want to go. I am learning that motivation in school, can be very different than motivation in life. I am trying to get back to the productiveness of my college/high school days, however, it seems to be taking time.

I'm not sure if its an adjustment period. I'm not sure if its me. However, I do know, that my productivity levels have changed significantly. I stay busy of course. Still doing many different activities, however, the activities never seem to involve any sort of motivation to actually finding a new job. Even though I desperately want one. Some people tell me I should just enjoy life for right now. Others tell me I just need to make time for working on my portfolio and job applications. I'm not sure which one I should be focusing on, however, if it is the latter, than where do I find the motivation to use my time towards this? How do I get there? And where did it go in the first place? 

Motivation. How do you stay motivated?