Motivational Poems

Poetic Motivation at its Finest

Motivational poems are another weapon to add to your arsenal of self motivation techniques. Better yet, poems often touch emotions and places within us that truly inspire, motivate, encourage, and nourish our souls. The poems here have been collected with great care. Enjoy!

What Kind of Person Are You?

Character and Personality

Two Kinds Of People

There are two kinds of people on earth today,

Just two kinds of people, no more, I say,

Not the good and the bad, for 'tis well understood

The good are half bad and the bad are half good.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years

Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.

Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man's wealth

You must first know the state of his conscience and health. 

Not the humble and proud, for in life's busy span 

Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.

No! The two kinds of people on earth I mean

Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.

Wherever you go you will find the world's masses

Are ever divided in just these two classes.

And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I wean,

There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.

This one question I ask. Are you easing the load

Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner who lets others bear

Your portion of worry and labor and care?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Motivational Poems 2:

You Tell On Yourself

You can tell what you are by the friends you seek,

By the very manner in which you speak,

By the way you employ your leisure time,

By the use you make of dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the things you wear,

By the spirit in which your burdens bear,

By the kind of things at which you laugh,

By records you play on the phonograph. 

You tell what you are by the way you walk,

By the things of which you delight to talk,

By the manner in which you bear defeat,

By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf;

In these ways, and more, you tell on yourself.

Author Unknown

Motivational Poems 3:

What's In It For Me?

We fancied he'd share in our cause. Instead 

"There is nothing in it for me!" he said.

He passed up pity and play and mirth

And counted his time to the penny's worth.

Ask for his help, and this would be

His answer: "What is there in it for me?"

Nothing it meant if you said: "In this 

Perhaps is friendship you'll some day miss.

Here is a task that won't pay in gold,

But will leave you prouder when you grow old. 

Though nothing for this will your purse collect,

It will pay you richly in self-respect."

"What is there in it for me?" he said.

We mentioned pride, but he shook his head.

"The joy of giving," he flicked his hand - 

That he never could understand.

And he found when life's last far bend was turned

That money was all he had ever earned. 

Edgar A. Guest

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