| |
The most important thing
about a man is what he believes in the depth of his being. This is the
thing that makes him what he is, The thing that
organizes him and feeds him; the thing that keeps him
going in the face of untoward circumstances; the thing that gives him
resistance.
Hugh Stevenson Tigner
Motivation is the dynamic by which we are driven to perform a
particular action. When we are motivated, we feel inspired. We are ready.
We feel that the time is right. We know that this is what we are supposed to be
doing. We want to do it regardless of our previous failures, or any rationales
to the contrary, or any pain or difficulty that we will encounter.
Sources of motivation
 | The ego. The ego's motivation is to create our human world such as our
home, income, social life, or a healthy body. |
| The true self. The true self=s
motivation is toward wisdom, love, and completion. It respects the ego's role in
creating our human world. |
| Defaults. In addition to the motivation from ego and true self, there are
motivations that we derive from various dynamics and mental functions. These
modes of motivation are mechanical defaults that we use when we are not directed
by the fresh, creative guidance of intuition. |
| Charged design elements. In every situation, we are confronting designs.
Intuition can guide us in generating the particular elements, thoughts, images,
energy tones, and actions, that constitute an appropriate response to those
designs. However, if we are not aware of intuition, or if we ignore it, our
thoughts, imagery, energy tones, and actions will not be entirely appropriate.
We will not say exactly what needs to be said. The elements do not fully
discharge their charge because of this inappropriateness. When they leave their
permanent record in the design, there is a charge that lingers. It is this
charge that compels us to recreate the design situation for the specific purpose
of discharging the residual energy. Much of our motivation derives from these
charged elements. If we have generated hateful thoughts toward irresponsible
people, we will be compulsively motivated to perform irresponsible acts until we
have resolved the charge. |
| Values. During a decision making process, the mind refers to our values.
If we must decide between a high paying job and an enjoyable job, the mind may
discover that we value enjoyment. We feel motivated to comply with our values,
contrarily, when we do not comply with our values, we experience the painful
sensation of guilt. When we are motivated by our values, we are energized and
excited. We find the drive and desire and resources to endeavor, and we feel
satisfaction when the goals are reached, regardless of people's reaction. What
we have achieved is real to us, because it satisfies our values. If we accept
other people's values as our own, we probably feel a weaker drive and an
emptiness at the conclusion, if we had enough enthusiasm to persist toward the
completion at all. |
| Desire. Motivation is the psychological process which is triggered when
we experience desire. |
| Pleasure and pain. Even though the motivation of ego and true self can
lead us into activities that are incidentally painful, we are generally
motivated by a desire to achieve pleasure or avoid pain. We are motivated by
pleasure and pain, because we feel fulfillment when we comply with our values,
and we feel guilt if we do not comply. These are two different motivations. Some
people are influenced primarily by a desire for pleasure, but other people's
lives are guided mostly by their aversion to discomfort. The first group
experiences more satisfaction and fun. We can join that group by expressing our
goals in a positive way. Our motivation can be to earn money for our family and
our own comfort, rather than to earn money to stay out of debt. |
Techniques for exploring our motivation.
| Design-work. To motivate ourselves, we can cultivate the energy
tones of pleasure, excitement, passion, and exhilaration. |
| Affirmations. "I am a responsible person.", "I feel
good when I fulfill my duties.", "I can find something interesting
in everything that I do.", "Life is a fascinating
adventure.", "I enjoy exploring the many facets of life." |
| Directed imagination. We can visualize ourselves performing a task
that needs to be performed. |
| Modeling. We model ourselves after the
behavior of other motivated
successful people. |
| Intuition.
 | Intuition can suggest goals that naturally motivate us. |
| Intuition can reveal our contrary motivations. If we have not been
motivated to study for an exam, intuition can show us that we have a fear of
success and so we secretly want to fail the exam. |
|
| Will and willpower. Will is the psychological function by which we direct our attention and
actions toward the goal for which we are motivated. Willpower is the default
that we employ to force ourselves to pursue a goal for which we are not
motivated. |
| We can explore our positive intention. We can search for our underlying
positive intention. If we are motivated to eat unhealthy foods because we like
the associated physical sensations, we can satisfy our positive intention by
exploring these sensations as they relate to healthy foods. |
| We can enhance the ways in which we motivate other people.
Parents
motivate their children, teachers motivate their students, supervisors motivate
their employees. We tend to motivate people through an external system, in which
we give pleasure such as compliments or pain such as humiliation. External
rewards can distract people from their internal reward system, and external
punishments can cause fear, resentment, and retaliation. Paradoxically we should
motivate people to motivate themselves. We ignite their internal system, so that
they perform well for the sake of the job itself and their own satisfaction. The
supervisor is not the personal dispenser of pleasure or pain. He or she is a
facilitator to an environment in which people want to do well. |
| We can develop patience. |
| Needs. We can explore Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This model helps to explain why
different people are motivated by different goals. In the hierarchy, we are
driven to fulfill a lower need before a higher need. When that lower need is
satisfied, it no longer drives us. In other words, a hungry person isn't
motivated by self fulfillment. He or she wants a sandwich, and will work for it,
but a well fed person is not motivated by that sandwich. According to Maslow, as
we satisfy each need, we move to the next one, in this order:
| Physiological needs. |
| Safety needs. These needs include physical security such as a home
that is secure, a stable environment, law and order, and freedom from fear
and violence. |
| Love and belonging. |
| Self esteem. These needs include self respect, achievement,
recognition, etc. |
| Self actualization. The previous four levels are founded on a sense
of lack. After satisfying those basics, we start to become complete,
distinct individuals who are inspired to pursue the expression of our full
potential, our self actualization. |
|
Men are more
accountable for their motives, than for anything else; and primarily, morality
consists in the
motives, that is in the affections.
Archibald Alexander
Next topic: Power |
