Motivation

This is a really fundamental concept. So important that I’ll keep it really short.

We are all motivated either by the desire to get to where we want to be OR by the desire to avoid what we fear.

Now listen up to the important part:

THESE ARE RARELY TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN.

A successful and compulsively creative entrepreneur told me that he got up very early in the morning and worked very hard “not from a desire to get rich, but from a desire not to be poor”. I don’t buy that. He may not have had a desire to get very rich. But if he only had the desire to move away from being poor, he’d have got himself a law degree. His desire to create was greater than his desire to not be poor. He was motivated by moving towards what he wanted, not by moving away from what he feared.

How much of what you have on your agenda today is motivated by avoiding what you are afraid of (the risk of: unpopularity, criticism, failure, conflict,  a “career limiting move”, your spouse grumbling at you) and how much of what you have on your agenda today is motivated by getting to where you want to get to – despite the scary but manageable things that may lie in the way? 

It can take years of practice for most people to develop the self-awareness to differentiate between these two key motivators. Don’t rush it. But don’t stop working on it.

Jim.

Click on the image to view the Rule 3 video