In perfect alignment of the universe, this morning I was reading a chapter in Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins (talk about motivation, this book is over 500 pages and will take some serious motivation to get through). In this chapter he describes motivation as simply as possible. People are motivated to avoid pain and to gain pleasure. Simple enough. If something causes you pain you will be motivated to avoid it, if something gives you pleasure you will be motivated to do it.
This is very obvious when we talk about instant feedback loops. I am motivated to keep my hands off of a hot stove because it is painful, I am instantly reminded as soon as I touch it that it is pain and I should avoid it. The same is true for pleasure. I am motivated to eat my grandma's peanut butter pie at Christmas because it is so enjoyable and delicious. This is obvious, but what about when we don't get the instant feedback?
This is where it gets tricky. I have noticed a general theory for habits and behaviors that we know are good for us as well as habits and behaviors that we know are bad for us. Bad habits provide instant pleasure and long term pain and good habits provide instant pain (pain here is also referencing increased output in effort) but long term pleasure.
Two examples:
Smoking is usually a mechanism to deal with stress, it is also an addiction. First, when people smoke, they get a buzz which makes them feel good so they begin to crave this. It also doubles as a way to deal with stress and anxiety. I know several people who smoke more cigarettes when they get stressed or have to deal with anxiety. Smoking provides instant pleasure. On the other hand, it is so hard to quite because trying to quit causes instant pain in terms of withdrawal and the loss of a soothing mechanism for stress and anxiety. So what is the motivation? Right now I am feeling the pain and I won't see the pleasure any time soon from quitting. As far as that person is concerned, they may never feel the pleasure of being a non-smoker.
Saving and Investing money. Most people would agree that saving money for retirement and investing are good ideas and if you start at a young age, you can live pretty comfortably in your old age when you retire. However, that means you have to experience a little pain as you tighten your budget and can't live the life you see on TV or can't buy all the toys you want. You might even compare yourself to your friend who is always going on vacations, has a nice car, and is always buying nice things. It is hard for you to look away. It is painful!
So as you can see, if you don't save now, you can have more fun, you will have 100% of your income to spend and anything that is left over after you pay rent and all of your bills you can spend on things to give you pleasure. So why would you be motivated to save.
To get motivated you need to flip the script. You need to mentally focus on the long term problems of the negative behaviors. Then you also need to focus on the long term benefits of the positive behavior. On top of that, it is also important to look at the instant feedback you can receive. It is pleasurable to know that you are doing something that is hard for most people to accomplish.
In my next post, I will cover strategies to flip the script and increase motivation naturally so you don't have to rely on instant pleasure and pain feedback mechanisms which can lead you astray.
Thank you for sticking with me so far. This has been an interesting journey and self-exploration for me and I appreciate all the positive feedback and support so far. I hope I can provide a service that is valuable for anyone who reads this.
Feel free to leave any thoughts or comments or email me directly,
Thanks,
Andrew
[email protected]
@andrewzimbd