No one knows what makes your mind tick.. When you hear someone say something; read something in the morning newspaper; the bitterness of your morning coffee gets you thinking about bitter other-some-things.  


We all know that any sort of ‘ticking’ must have some emotion in the back of it all, which makes the ‘ticking’ longer and inspires an action, or feeling, from us.. That we may, or may not be proud of (but that’s another thing).
I have no idea what the scientific research on this says, but for me, its probably powered by emotions. For example, if I see someone fighting for a good cause, I’d feel happy, proud and get inspired to do something like that or at least take some action in support to that. 
Getting ‘ticked’ (in a positive way) is always healthy, and oh-so-important for a human to grow. If a human being isn’t inspired by a certain-something, how will we ever do things and become the people we’re supposed to become? Even if, say, one’s forced to study or not to lie, would that change the person inside? Maybe, a little. But even that’d be a short term change, and very superficial. In order for a human to grow truly, and from within, one needs to be inspired by something.. And that’ll only happen when something/someone ticks the inspiration button on.