What Keeps You Motivated?

I think about a few things during the slow months for motivation. The pay check is #1. Watching the interest component on my mortgage payment get slightly smaller every month. The fact that experience is measured in terms of time and not success so every day sitting in your chair makes you more valuable. Knowing that 50% of the job is showing up, 25% is looking the part 15% not fucking up and the last 10% is outperformance. The fact that most people without a good education will never have the opportunity to sit in my chair, let alone be behind the scenes on deals with millions at stake. Or if I'm having issues with someone at work, knowing that there will come a time when that person ceases to exist in my world and becomes just a memory, just like the hundreds of former colleagues before them. Is it all worth it? Ultimately it's just a job to support my upper middle class lifestyle. 100 years from now no-one will know or care, so probably not, but at least it's better than waiting tables.