Motivation as Compulsion

^ Motivation as Compulsion

Motivation can sometimes come at a huge cost. Take the times, for example, when what powers our motivation is not love, joy or inspiration, but fear.

Fear can be highly effective at making us comply with its "instructions". Similarly, hate can be a very reliable motivator, as when it drives us to harbour powerful resentments and grudges.

Compulsive desire, meanwhile, can make us so “driven to distraction” that we obsess over the "desire objects” it sets for us to chase.

Whichever of these "stress forces" takes over, in each case we find ourselves lost to our own true self.

Under their influence, our motivation might just as well be called compulsion, for it causes us to lose our self-control and true free will.

As part of the deal, we open ourselves up to stress, which can be a dangerous game to play.

our motivation makes us more - or less - free, and more - or less - our true self.

that deep dissatisfaction can cost us our own true, loving and joyful nature - and self.

That’s how desire can threaten our innate creativity - and our true, creative self.

^ Demotivating "Motivation"

We all know of the technique of “motivation” through having “carrot” rewards dangled in front of us, in return for “good performance” - and of the accompanying “stick”, as when we’re penalised for failing to satisfy the required standard.

Our susceptibility to this “carrot and stick” approach to motivation comes about through the presence within us of the same “stress forces” mentioned above - compulsive desire, fear and anger. “

"Carrot and stick” is effectively a means of imposing control and force, and clearly has its legitimate place, as where a building catches fire, and needs to be evacuated rapidly and reliably.

Unfortunately, control and force - and hierarchical power - can be addictive, meaning that “carrot and stick” can be overused as a "leadership" technique. Now, stress and compulsion (courtesy of the drivers behind “carrot and stick”, namely compulsive desire, fear and anger) can end up as an ever more popular choice, allied to a declared sense of perpetual crisis - by way of “justification”. To quote George Orwell, "...war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous".

Unfortunately, just as war can be viewed as a dead end, coercion and compulsion via “carrot and stick”, compulsive desire, fear and anger do nothing to help us realise our greatest levels of happiness, health or motivation.