What’s Your Motivation?

There are only two things that drive people to action, if we really boil it down. One is avoidance of pain, and the other is moving toward pleasure. Most goals and most people’s “big visions” are anchored in ‘moving away-from’ motivation. They are moving away from a source of pain.

Weight loss goals, financial goals and often even lifestyle goals are typically rooted in the desire to get away from the money you’re making now, the weight or the life you‘re living now. They’re very away-from motivated.

If you anchor your goal to an ‘away from’ motivation—say wanting to lose 30 pounds—you’ll only stay motivated as long as there is the pain of unwanted pounds. What tends to happen with those kinds of goals is that you get initial progress because you’re committed to getting out of pain BUT you slow down or stop the minute you start improving. You only get to about 80% of your goal. Your motivation wanes because the motivation is dependent on pain. Less pain = less motivation.

Any goal that’s deeply anchored in a motivation of moving away from pain is going to be one of those goals. At best, you’ll get 70% to 80% accomplished before you lose interest.

One of the things I challenge my clients to do when we start working together is to get invested in a compelling vision–a “toward” vision– something they want to move toward. Something they desire, are passionate about having or doing. Something attached to a bigger “why” than to be ‘pain free’.

There’s a complete shift that happens when you’re motivated toward pleasure, making an impact or difference in the world or doing something big and exciting. These are goals and visions that are connected to your core values.

Once you get connected at that level to really expressing and fulfilling who you are and what you’re meant to do in this world, you’re going to get the kind of motivation that becomes unstoppable. Because your inner values are a limitless source of fuel. They can propel you further, faster, than anything else.

So today’s invitation is to consider the goals you’re currently working toward. Are they ‘away from’ motivated or ‘toward’ motivated? What would have to shift for you to EXCLUSIVELY focus your effort, energy and action on TOWARD goals?