The 55 Concepts: Self Help Article Series
by: Michael Cavallaro
Motivation
What is motivation exactly?
Motivation is required when the joy of beingness and self direction does not exist. Motive by its raw definition is the desire to acquire. The desire to acquire a feeling, an experience or something tangible is at the essence of the motive.
To motivate someone is to stimulate their desire to do or achieve something for a perceived outcome.
To motivate your self is to stimulate yourself into the state of desire in order to accomplish something.
Motivation in and of itself is a false stimulation of a desire in order to get yourself or someone to do something.
In other words, motivation is manipulation, of yourself or another person.
Yes, in today's society motivation is seen as a positive way to get people or yourself to do something. But in truth motivation is simply a form of manipulation.
Motivation is a nice way to say I will manipulate myself or someone else in order to accomplish or acquire something.
We would suggest that motivation is simply a way to play on people’s needs and desires in order to use them. Self motivation is simply a way to play upon your own needs and desires in order to fulfill a desired outcome. If you look closely at these last two statements you can see that motivation is not a positive thing!
We also suggest that motivation/manipulation is not a good foundation to base our society or our businesses on. There are three problems with motivation:
1. Motivation is high maintenance and never permanent.
2. Motivation is dishonest in its essence.
3. Motivation assumes a person is not capable of self determination.
It is however true that many people enjoy being motivated and go for the dangling carrot. Again we would suggest that this preys on the weaknesses of people and creates in the air of master - slave for the parties involved. The motivator becomes an authority/master and the person being motivated becomes the slave/submissive. In this type of relationship there is always destined to be confrontation or at the very least some sort of resentment. The relationship of motivator and motivated this hierarchal and implies a lesser and greater than relationship. All relationships of this quality your caliber, fail!
From this perspective it would be advisable to cease all motivation and to change our societal perspective of motivation to one of facilitating the experience of conscious choice and personal responsibility. In the state of conscious choice and personal responsibility each individual is responsible to achieve, acquire or produce an agreed-upon outcome by their own choice. In failing to accomplish this or fulfill their agreement they are let go or released from their duties. If it is made that simple it would force the position of personal responsibility and at the very least be a completely honest relationship.
What type of relationship would you desire to be in?
1. A relationship where you are manipulated in order to satisfy another person's needs or desires.
2. A relationship where the agreement is out in the open and completely understood.
3. A relationship where you are tempted by perceived rewards in order to get you to behave in a way that someone else desires.
4. A relationship where you were aware of the agreements and consciously chose to do what was honestly asked.
Ask yourself these questions when interacting with other people:
Am I motivating myself or another?
Am I consciously choosing?
Am I attempting to have someone else fulfill my needs or desires?
Am I trying to trick myself into doing something I do not want to do?
Am I being direct and honest?
Remember this article when you are parenting your children, interacting with your coworkers or loved ones. Sometimes if you are direct and honest you may not get what you want. You must decide if honesty and integrity are more valuable than having your needs or desires met no matter how you may justify them.
© Michael Cavallaro 2010
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