Seeing & feeling changes for the good keeps me motivated because I want to see more!

I work three days days a week, I spend the rest of the week volunteering at my boys schools. I have a 7th grader and a freshman. I work to raise money for all the extras not in thier budgets... with the added bonus of spending lots of time with my kids and getting to know the teachers really well.

Coffee.

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!

Also I'm a big fan of more work and continued improvement. The only way you'll ever know that you're doing a good job, is if your boss keeps giving you more and more complex work to do.

Economic freedom
Physical health and stamina
Great food and wine
Helping others
Exploring new cultures
Seeing natural beauty

That's it

I'm at the park or walking in the river I see trash I'll pick it up and throw it away if somebody else is too lazy to the next time I'm down there it may not be there.

I have tremendous inner drive and determination. I set personal goals and meet them.

Getting a master degree by age 30. After shoulder surgery, lifting weights and stretching through the pain. I regained my strength and range of motion. It took 18 months. Best of all, I am pain free.

"Most patients give up and accept their limitations," the shoulder surgeon said. "They are not willing to push themselves like you did."

Gro and Karen often lead me up steep trails. Suddenly I stop. Next is a knife-edge section of the trail with steep drop-offs on each side. It's frightening. Karen and Gro have already walked across and kept going.

I steel myself. Take a deep breath. Go slowly, watching every step to keep myself safe.

Descending, sometimes I sit down and slide downhill on my butt in the dirt or snow, because it's too steep for me to stand up. It mystifies me how they can walk upright.

Facing difficult challenges builds confidence and self-esteem.

Photo: 18 months after right shoulder surgery. 2010.

When someone tells me I can't do something, it makes me try even harder. That's why one of my tattoos is a phoenix. Too many times people counted me out -- only to have me rise from the ashes. Besides that, most of my motivation is internal rather than external. Performing an act that is consistent with my values makes me feel great.

I get great satisfaction in helping other people. I also get great satisfaction in solving problems, developing solutions, designing and building things to meet a need, and just figuring stuff out. If I can combine all those things, I feel golden.

My daughter. Providing for her, setting a great example.

The feeling of accomplishment. Working on something, having it go wrong, doing some research, working more and having a breakthrough, still not perfect, laying in bed in contemplation, reorganizing, sudden insight, and then it works. It works exactly as you had imagined it. It’s a good feeling.

Beer.

Pedaling my bike and observing nature while doing that and also reading scientific research.

Love is my biggest motivation. In lieu of someone to try to satisfy, I'm mostly motivated by pain and trying to lessen it. And impermanence/my sense of aging motivates me to stop and smell the roses or savor unusual moments.

Happiness.

When someone either abuses their authority or tries to exert authority that they do not have, it flies all over me. It is these times that my wife contends that Tom Petty's song, "Won't back down," was written about me.

Ignoring incentives. Since I left the Military... never looked for praise again.

Personal pride motivates me. It's like not doing something well is beneath me, although it still happens.

I like the feeling of Mission Accomplished. Task Completed. And in the long term, I want to be able to tell my ex-husband to take his alimony and stuff it. I want to return ALL of it. ALL. I hate having to take it for now while I am back in school.

Excellent question.

I find the completion (rather the use of the completed project) ranging from stained glass windows to being able to drive a car I repaired to designing and building/configuring components of my home theater (hardware and software) rather rewarding. I have spend thousands of hours on such projects.

Also, my desire to be able to answer questions has inspired me to research a wide spectrum of topics.

I write and play music.
When an idea pops in my head I get pretty excited, and very motivated to turn it into a song.

Chocolate, travel, nature

The spread of knowledge and scientific literacy is all that powers me haha.

Money rarely motivates me. I am motivated by a sense of duty...to help others, to do the right thing, to be the responsible one, to take care of things and people...so much so that I sometimes forget to take care of my own self...I am being motivated to do that.

Nothing these days.