in•cen•tive
noun: something that incites or tends to incite to action or greater effort, as a reward offered for increased productivity.
All of our life we are unintentionally taught to only work at something if we have some sort of incentive to do so. This begins from age two—taking your first steps. What is it that makes us take those first few steps from one parent to the other? Whether it’s the fruit loops or our favorite toy, there is some sort of incentive steering us all. And why should we need an incentive to walk? Isn’t the ability to move an incentive all its own? For many of us, this idea of incentive continues on throughout our lives as we do chores, participate in extracurricular activities, attend religious services, and even go to school. All of these things help us to develop life skills and to reach our potential. They should be the things we are striving for as we progress in life. There should be no treat given for cleaning up a mess we made in the first place, no money expected for working at something we love, no shopping spree for doing well in school. Rather it should be that the drive to achieve and excel in all areas comes from within us. The human mind wants to become greater every day. It can reach such a high potential but only if we allow it to do so. We cannot keep blocking roads that open up to us just because we see no worldly incentive down its path. There is incentive for everything—we just have to find it within ourselves.