“A positive argument is as weak as a negative argument, and we need something more substantial than action that runs off our emotions, good, bad, or indifferent.”  Robert Fritz

Are you motivated to action more by fear of what you don’t want or by the promise of what you do want?

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live!  (Deut. 30:19; NLT)

The last couple of DGs (6/18 and 6/20) have centered around setting a properly stated goal that motivates you and then taking appropriate actions steps to move you toward that desired future from your current reality.  Inspiration for those thoughts and for today’s DG come from an excellent book I’m currently reading entitled Your Life as Art by Robert Fritz. 

Today, I’d like to key in on that word “motivates.”  There are a couple of commonly used techniques to motivate us to do things we wouldn’t ordinarily want to do–one is with a threat of punishment or negative consequences (the “stick”), and the other is with the promise of a reward or a positive outcome (the “carrot”).  Various schools of thought prefer one over the other, but Fritz explains why neither work very well for very long.

Let’s start with the stick.  Led by a vision of a very undesirable outcome, we are motivated to take action we would probably not otherwise take in order to head off that particular outcome.  Doing that action makes us feel a little better because we were pro-active in heading off the terrible outcome.  Now that we feel better, will we continue that defensive action long enough to truly make a difference?  Well, we might for a while, but each time we take that action, we feel a little less threatened by the threat and eventually, the unpleasantness of the defensive action becomes greater than the threat of the outcome that motivated us to action in the first place.  So over time, the threat ceases to motivate.

The carrot, on the other hand, is equally unreliable as a long-term motivator.  The carrot relies on the inspiration that comes from thinking about all the great things that will happen to us if we will just consistently take that action that we would probably not otherwise take.  The problem with this is that inspiration is fickle–sometimes it’s there in great measure and sometimes it’s missing in action.  On those MIA days, it’s often easier to just not do what we need to keep doing to get the carrot.  And to make it worse, inspiration-driven action reduces the inspiration over time just as the fear-driven action associated with the stick gradually reduces the fear.

According to Fritz, the way out of this dilemma is to learn to “think hierarchically.”  That simply means to recognize what’s more important to us and what’s less important.  If the positive outcome we desire is more important than the discomfort of the actions we would rather not perform, then we will be motivated to do those actions anyway.  All this points to the need to carefully determine and define your desired future or your goal.  When chosen with care, the goal will provide all the motivation necessary to cause the consistent action necessary for success.  That’s one of the reasons why adopting someone else’s goal for you is so dangerous.  Chances are that the motivation to “push through” will dissipate over time.

Prayer Power
Lord, give us the grace to be able to accurately define and articulate those things that are truly most important to us.  Help us to recognize and break free from goals others have established for us.

Link of the Day
Robert Fritz on Change

Blessings on you as you dig deep to get at your most significant desires.