From what I understand – and know from personal experience – motivation seems to require cultivation. I used to think that I had to work on Make More Monie even when I was not motivated to do so. Kind of like the way I thought that I had to work out daily in order to develop a better physique, until I discovered all that this does is cause overtraining injuries.
Anyway, when I couldn’t make progress, I told myself that perhaps this was a sign that it wasn’t what I should be doing in the first place; that I obviously didn’t believe in it enough or that it wasn’t a beneficial initiative. More than once I considered simply abandoning the idea, giving in to this negative mindset.
In this case though, after repeatedly seeing examples of why my idea was a sound one that could benefit so many, I broke the cycle by making a deal with myself to pursue this initiative only when the creativity and drive was on my side. And you know what? It worked. I think it did so because the progress I made while inspired more than made up for the lack of progress made when I wasn’t. An unexpected byproduct of this progress was that it provided its own level of motivation, and I began to feel these lulls between bouts of motivation less and less.
In addition to motivation, combining a positive mindset with it is critical for success. No matter our personality, our skill set, our natural aptitude and abilities, no matter how much money others are investing in us, we have to have an unshakeable belief in ourselves and our ideas, concepts or goals. Without this, it will be almost impossible to persevere.
In a previous post, Internal – not External – Combustion, I mentioned that to be successful in whatever we pursue, we must understand that it is up to us, and really, only us. Even if we succeed in building a business, those that work at “Us Inc.”, from administration to zoning, will be looking to us for inspiration. To be able to deliver that to them, we will need to remain motivated and completely invested in ourselves and our new goal, presumably to keep and grow what we have built.
In part two of this post on motivation, I’ll expand further on hedonic motivation, which unlike utilitarian motivation – wanting to pursue things for well thought-out, rational reasons, such as those that realize extrinsic or otherwise functional, practical benefits – refers to the influence of a person’s pleasure and pain receptors on their willingness to move towards a goal, or, away from a threat.
No less than the three OG’s Socrates, Democritus and Epicurus weighed in on this, which, in today’s vernacular, imagines experiences being registered on a gauge that ranges from bad to good, and our primary motivation – at least in my case, anyway – is to keep the gauge’s needle redlining great!
In short, it appears that Socrates felt that each and every one of us should seek pleasure over pain and any who don’t, clearly were “lolos”. Democritus had a similar opinion, I’ve read, including that anyone who didn’t seek out pleasure, especially over pain, likely and for the most part, didn’t know “what’s what”, but also acknowledged that not everyone feels the same about either. Considering that for a number of those among us, pain that the rest of us would certainly not appreciate is, for them, pleasurable.
Rounding out the opinions of these deep thinkers, Epicurus seems to have felt that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, and that moderation is the goal. For someone that was putting forward this notion in the days before the Battle of Actium between Octavian and the power couple of the day; Mark Antony and Cleopatra, he was well ahead of his time, especially considering today’s morbid obesity rates.
We wholeheartedly concur. One certainly can have too much banana cream pie, no matter how desirable that first slice looked and how very delicious it was. We also know though, that our mentees should never feel they are better to damper their desire – or their appetite – for “making more monie”!
Disclaimer: The information contained herein should not be construed or considered professional advice. Nonetheless, thanks for reading! If it resonates, there’s “plenty more where that came from” on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X ‘n’ YouTube