The Pleasure and Pain Principles of Motivation for Change.
People will either move towards what they want, the desired situation or they move away from what they don’t want, the current and undesirable situation. Usually the same outcome has both factors keyed in, but it is the driving motive that sparks-off the action and keeps the motivation to progress dialled in.
For e.g. Wanting to making more money because you want to own your home; this is a moving towards becoming an independent home owner. On the flip side, making more money because you don’t want to continue paying the rent and be dependent on home tenancy contracts; this is a moving away from the continuous rent payments, perhaps in favour of mortgage payments to reach the target of home ownership and independence.
E.g. Being sick and tired of super-budgeting, scrimping and saving to live just within one’s fixed means with worries about rising inflation vs moving towards an expansive life of abundance and prosperity by expanding the sources of income.
Another way to look at it is the age old “Being motivated by the carrot or the stick.”
Will the Reward pull you or will the Punishment deter you?
We tend to think about, imagine, and visualise stories regarding our set goals and outcomes, with the natural tendency of our mind to create scenarios. For some people it might not be a picture, but rather a series of feelings or imagining and conjuring up running conversations in their mind etc.
We humans have quite an enormous potential to adjust, to suffer in silence, living lives of quiet desperation, being stuck in our ruts, until jolted out by an inner awakening or an external event. That is when we set new standards for our lives, for what we are or are not willing to tolerate and accept as the norm.
The desired outcome can either be one that inspires us to achieve it or it can be something we deem necessary but that does not inspire us. The energy we put in can be quite the same to start with, however, being pulled by a strong inspiring motivation will only add more fuel to the fire!
Like seems to attract like in the long run — ‘Opposites attract but similarities endure.’ I personally find quickly tuning into the positive, reward driven states more ‘rewarding’ and joyful as compared to the remaining in the negative spark of wanting to change because a situation has become intolerable and find that it keeps me more bound to more of the same kind of energies, not as exciting as compared to visualising powerful, fantastic outcomes.
Most people seem to be sparked-off by wishing to move away from the pain when it becomes an awareness of setting the boundary of enough is enough. Some will choose intentionally with full awareness the excitement and motivation of reaching new heights, setting new standards.
The sparking event, whether from the Point of View of Reward or Avoidance of Punishment has a massive impact on motivation levels.
Q: In the major turns in the journey of your life, what has been your sparking-off factor that motivated you to change and grow?
