Why do you get out of bed and go to work in the morning?
All motivating factors boil down to one of two things. You’re either moving toward something or moving away from something. Turning it back to the first question I posed, there are two basic answers. You get up and go to work because you want to build your future and buy cool stuff. The alternative is that you go to work because you don’t want to be fired and/or homeless.
The first answer is what someone gets from going to work. The second is what someone gets to avoid by going to work. Both types of motivation can be very powerful and each one has its use. Most people who find themselves face to face with a polar bear would probably want to run to avoid being torn apart and so an “away from” motivation makes perfect sense in that sort of a situation.
It isn’t really a matter of being positive or negative. In my personal experience, I tend to have greater success with “toward” motivation. If I’m looking for what I’m after instead of what I’m trying to avoid, experience has shown me that I’m more likely to recognize opportunities to advance myself toward those goals. Spending my time thinking about the things I want to avoid just gets me more of the same.
So now the question remains, what motivates you, looking forward to something great or running to avoid something bad? How’s that working for you?
