All my life I worked hard,
made sacrifices,
burnt the midnight oil,
lost my hair and my social life
in pursuit of only one goal:
To eat a tub of tender coconut ice cream
Here I am staring into the tub,
staring into the emptiness of the tub as the last spoon is gone
Now what?
I see only darkness ahead of me
What Goal should I pursue now?
Choco chip almond ice cream?
In case you scoff at this
life-shaking event of mine,
replace ice cream by
Director title or
Olympic Gold medal or
100 Mln $ business or
the biggest client in the country or
1st rank in an exam
These are motivations that we seek outside or Extrinsic rewards
There is one more pernicious type of motivation
more dangerous than extrinsic
motivation which is
To be driven by
fear, anger, guilt or shame.
They make you do
very noble or ignoble acts
however the danger lies that
you will never achieve the sense of closure
which you are seeking
because you are filling up
a hole in the past,
a past which is gone and
nothing can be done about it
Check this video for the five types of Motivation
Jim Dethmer, a Leadership Expert, talks about these 5 types of motivation
1 Fear, Anger, Guilt, shame
2 Extrinsic reward-based – I do this and I will get this
3 Intrinsic rewards the process is the reward, the journey is the reward, the work is the reward
4 Play this is the space where children are full of enjoyment and an absence of “I am doing this” this is the space of maximum learning as you are driven by curiosity and are in flow
5 Love No, not self-love! Love of the work, Love for serving others, Love for what you are bringing into the world, the masterpiece which you are chiselling everyday
______________________________
Please drop in comments
Which of these five are you driven by?