Our motivation is our most valuable commodity. Multiplied only by action, its value fluctuates with how we invest our attention. Some of our motives to act are biological, while others have personal and social origins. We are motivated to seek FOOD, water, etc but our behavior is also influenced by social approval, acceptance, the need to achieve, and the motivation to take or to avoid risks. The sources of motivation can be experienced as either internal in the form of push motivation or external as in the case of pull motivation. Push motivation is described in terms of biological variables originating in a person’s brain and nervous system and psychological variables that represent properties of a person’s mind, such as psychological needs.  Pull motivation is understood in terms of environmental variables that describe external sources of motivation, like incentives or goals. Our internal sources of motivation interact with external sources to direct behavior. Motivation also depends on stable individual differences, like personality traits and psychological needs. Finally, emotions also serve as motives. When talking about motivation, the topic of goals inevitably comes up. As a cognitive mental event, a goal is a “spring to action” that functions like a moving force that energizes and directs our behavior in purposive ways. Goals, like mindset, beliefs, expectations, or self-concept, are sources of internal motives and are together referred to as cognition. These cognitive sources of motivation involve our way of thinking and unite together many mental constructs that spring us into action. Ironically enough, goals are generated by what is NOT, or in other words, a DISCREPANCY between where we are and where we want to be. The saying; “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there” describes the difference in motivated behavior between those who have goals and those who do not focus their attention towards a defined outcome. But it isn’t necessarily enlightening to simply formulate goals. As a motivational construct, goal setting translates into performance only when the goals are challenging, specific, and congruent with the self. We exert more effort toward challenging goals, focus our attention to the extent of their specificity, and draw energy from how those goals reflect our values. Motivation at its best is spontaneous and makes goal PURSUIT a way of being where self-concordance paves the way for strategic use of attention directed toward the end goal. But let’s not get CARRIED away here, other factors such as ability and resources also influence performance, and there is no direct correspondence between goals and performance. When difficult goals don’t ENERGIZE the performer, specific goals fail to direct that energy toward a particular course of action, and concordant goals fail to enhance performance.