What motivates you?

I'm a joiner. I admit it. At the church that I attend, I am a liturgist, a member of the finance committee and currently chairing a committee for the September fish fry. (Excellent fish fry, by the way. Let me know if you're interested and I'll get you the details!) Oh...did I mention I'm not actually a MEMBER of this church?

Doing a charity walk/run/ride? Need a new player at your poker game? Looking for new members for your book club? Well, I'm your gal. Just ask. I'm sure I'll say yes. Do I actually have time to add MORE activities to my schedule? Probably not. Will that stop me from joining? Once again, probably not. But that's a rant for another day.

Why do I bring this up? Tonight starts my bowling league. I've been bowling on this league for about 8 years (WOW! Time sure does fly!) and I thoroughly enjoy it....most of the time. Our team is most definitely in it to have fun. That's certainly not the case for lots of the other teams on the league, but none of the members of our team are going to become pro bowlers anytime soon. Unfortunately fun does not always equal winning and, whether I like it or not, for me, sometimes activities are more fun if I'm winning.

Individually, all the members of our team definitely have our good nights. Unfortunately we can't always get those good nights to happen for more than one of us at a time. So, at the end of the season last spring, we were all grousing about how poorly we had done in the rankings. (If I remember right, we were 19th in a league of 20 teams. Ouch!) We would love to do better this year, but how?

My suggestion was that we put our money where our mouths are. My idea was that for each game that you do not get your average, you have to pay. How much? We decided on 25 cents. Is a possible penalty of 75 cents on the night really going to change things? Maybe. Maybe not.

Maybe the mere thought that we each have a goal to reach will be enough to help us do better this year. Maybe the thought of relentless ridicule and fun-making at our expense by the other members of the team will be enough. I guess only time will tell.

As for me, I think I need this kind of thing to push me to do better. But what motivates you to do your best?