There are two kinds of motivation: that which we are drawn toward, and that which we look to avoid. We are drawn toward pleasure, and avoid pain. We move toward those things that make us happy, and away from those things that upset us. This seems pretty basic and obvious. However, there are times we are drawn toward those things that upset us and move away from our rewards. Obviously, this isn’t something we do consciously, but we do it nevertheless.
How can that be? When we are motivated in our business to avoid failure, our thoughts move us toward the very thing we don’t want. In fact, anytime we focus on what we don’t want, we are moving toward that very thing. For those who have seen “The Secret,” or have been exposed to the Law of Attraction in one way or another, you have heard, “We become what we think about most of the time”. If you think about the disaster you wish to avoid, what happens? You imagine the disaster. You can see it clearly. You don’t want this to happen, or that to happen–but you can clearly imagine both ‘this’ and ‘that’. Our imagination is a creative force. In fact, imagination is THE creative force. Nothing anyone has ever made was created, and THEN imagined. Imagination is always the first creation.
This being the case, we can use worry as our teacher. We all know what it feels like. We all know how to do it. What if we “worry” about the things we DO want to happen. If we imagine what we DO want with the same effort and clarity that we put into worry, we will have the same result: that which we think about, we will bring about.
Since the other motivator is moving towards something, isn’t it time we start focusing on what we want to move toward, and not that which we wish to avoid?
’til next time,
Woody