Are you inspired by the pleasure of how well things could go, or are you more motivated to move by pain? Maybe you have been meaning to take a trip to the dentist and putting it off, but if you have a painful toothache, that will certainly get you there quickly!
I have been having lots of interesting conversations about this recently in my facebook group… I believe we all want to be motivated by pleasure… e.g., I will feel so great when I
- fit into that fabulous dress
- am calmer after meditating
- have earned x level of income
And yet, you find yourself
- reaching for late-night snacks
- not making time to sit
- not going the extra mile to reach out for new business
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
Instead, we might motivate ourselves by avoiding pain…
- people will judge me at the event if I look terrible in my dress
- if I don’t get calmer and control my outbursts I may get fired
- I don’t want to be seen as my teams weakest link, I better hit my target
I firmly believe we all WANT to be inspired by pleasure and sometimes we are… it’s all about perspective after all.
Our brains are wired to move towards pleasure and away from pain. Even with this knowledge, in this modern, complex, multitasking life we lead, it’s not always that simple to relate the pleasure and pain to the same source. e.g., we can desire to earn x level of income AND at the same time procrastinate about the tasks to get there, AND we distract ourselves from any uncomfortable feelings about that through TV/Facebook, over-eating, alcohol, etc… receiving pleasure from other sources, totally unconnected with the satisfaction of accomplishing the new x level of income.
So how do we create associations that will help us? In the case of a new goal, we don’t always have the information of what pleasure in that area may feel like, especially if you don’t have a regular habit of connecting with your vision of the future and who we get to become, once we have accomplished the goal we set.
If the pain of ‘being seen as the weakest link/letting the team down’ is seen to be scarier than making 3 new/scary phone calls to ask for more business, in this case, motivated by pain gets those new/scary calls made. Not the pleasure of getting the win… Over time, once we hit x level and have had the experience of making it happen, we create a memory we can use… next time, reaching and achieving the x level of income, may be enough to inspire us, remembering the pleasure of the accomplishment, the team celebration and how good it feels to reach a goal.
What about you – are you more motivated by avoiding pain, or inspired by seeking pleasure? Is this information helpful when thinking about
Of course, I hope it’s always pleasurable to take the action, the reality though, avoiding pain can be a powerful motivator.
How can you use this knowledge to your advantage? Reply or comment and let me know your thoughts. 🙂