Member-only story
Do you need motivation?
When do we need motivation for stuff? We need motivation for stuff where the short term — it’s not very pleasant. And usually, where the consequences for not doing the thing are not very great.
For example, if I told you I would give you a million pounds to sit down and do your homework, you would jolly well sit down and do your homework. It’s not hard.
If I told you that, if you don’t do your homework, you’re going to die, you would jolly well sit down and do your homework. But usually, we don’t operate within those extremes of motivation, because there’s no need for motivation there.
Because, in one circumstance, the outcome is so pleasurable in the here-and-now that we’re going to do the work. And in the other one, the punishment for not doing the thing is so great that, we’re going to do the thing.
And those are the two elements of it. It’s like, how pleasurable is this thing to do vs. how punishing is the alternative of not doing it? And those are the domains that I think we can target when it comes to motivation.
Those are just some of the ways that we can target this motivation thing: try and make the thing more pleasurable, or try and make the alternative more unpleasant.
If you find these posts worth your time, you can follow me or subscribe my email newsletter.
