Motivation by Compulsion

^ Drive That's Not Really Ours

A desire that's healthy serves to boost our drive. Yet when desire takes over - and becomes a compulsion - it can make us desperate.

So “driven to distraction” can we become by given “desire objects” 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.

Fear and anger can make us equally "driven" - and stressed - as when we find ourselves shrinking in terror from given “fear objects”, or stewing in vengefulness or rage for hours on end, thanks to anger.

In all these cases, and whether it’s compulsive desire, fear or anger that puts us at its mercy, we become stripped of all - true - free will.

^ 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.