I have always had a keen interest in psychology. Motivation is a curious psychological phenomena. A person may struggle to get off the couch and exercise, yet that same person will jump up for a piece of cake. The expense of energy to get off the couch is the same in both cases, but the perceived reward determines whether the action will happen or not.
It’s like money. Some people will hesitate to spend money on a new pair of shoes, whereas they will happily sink their money into a gadget they could probably live without. Marketing is based on creating a desire and making it appear like a need. After envisioning an enriched life with the new product, we feel loss when we go back to the real world. That loss creates a buying urge. That buying urge lasts momentarily, but it’s why telemarketing and infomercials do such great business. They create motivation by promoting a reward.
I am motivated by dissatisfaction. I may have a streat of obsessive compulsive running through me. It’s controllable, but I can definitely feel it’s pull. Once I am aware of something better, I am consumed by the desire to get it and implement it in my life. This is useful and a huge burden, for I spend a great deal of time being intensely dissatisfied with the way things are. For the things that are easily changeable, like my hairstyle or clothes, it’s a useful way to motivate that next haircut or shopping trip. On the other hand, when it involves the superfluous, like my desktop wallpaper or defraging my computer hard disk, it just wastes time. But when it really hurts is when I confront things which are nearly impossible to change, for that is dissatisfaction with no payoff and no viable chance of resolution. It’s an emotion only inches from despair and feelings like these things can make life miserable.
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
This is the mantra for Alcoholics Anonymous and it’s wisdom can’t be overlooked. Yet it’s the last part, the wisdom to know the difference which stumps me. Some things are impossible and we can easily know they are impossible. But life is filled with people who accept too many things as being impossible, when in fact they are possible. Often, we can’t know what’s possible or impossible until we try. Edison had 1000 failed attempts at making the light bulb, Churchill lost every election for public office until he was 62, Sigmund Freud was booed off stage when he first presented his ideas, Michael Jordan was kicked off his high school basketball team, Henry Ford went broke five times before he succeeded and history is filled with scores of other such tales. Click here if you’d like some more examples.
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his life. And this to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs (approximately $50). This didn't stop him from completing over 800 paintings.
I have lived by the saying:
EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE
because I would rather attempt the impossible and fail than to resign myself to accepting that some things just can’t be done. It’s an exciting outlook and it’s the only way to achieve the impossible.
So, I feel motivated to change the things which I feel could be improved because I believe that everything is possible to change and make better. I am motivated to do so by my strong feelings of dissatisfaction. Seems good?
Then why am I not in the gym? Why am I not well-versed in the Korean language? Why don’t I keep my bike, room or shoes neatly cleaned and polished every day? Because the dissatisfaction I use as a motivator is not motivation enough in small doses. Eventually that dissatisfaction may grow until I force myself to really do something about it, but then I’ll only do it until the feeling subsides and stops bothering me.
If we motivate ourselves through negativity, we are creating a place for negativity in our lives. The things which we want to get done rely upon emotions of guilt or sadness which we seek to avoid. It goes without saying that this is a less than ideal state in which to live.
If we spend our lives backing away from negativity, we are facing the wrong direction and have no hope of finding and catching our dreams.
The solution then, is to transform those negative thoughts into a positive vision of the future.
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