Everytime I see this picture, think I about what it means to be motivated.
Everyone always makes the assumption that to “be motivated” means that you are going to do something positive. “Get motivated to run” or “you need to get motivated to go to work” or to do well in school or whatever. Well, I’d like to posit that motivation can be both a positive and a negative. That people can be motivated by both positive and negative results and that negative results are more motivating than positive results. Actually, I think that motivation has nothing to do with the end result, but rather with the desire to do, or not do, something.
Take the little dog in the picture above. Being like the little dog in the picture takes some chutzpah. After all, being that much smaller than the other dog has to be intimidating, yet regardless of that, he still manages to tell the much bigger dog to bugger off. Perhaps the little dog is motivated by an innate desire to not be afraid of the larger dog, no matter the consequences. Perhaps the chihuahua is a masochist, and knows that insulting the much larger dog will likely bring it the pain that it so craves. Maybe there’s something else completely different at work.
Take for instance the person that is trying to lose weight, yet can’t manage to stick to an exercise plan or diet routine. Maybe the routine is not a good fit for them, but maybe they’re just more motivated to stay fat than they are motivated to lose weight. Maybe they feel more comfortable being fat. Maybe they’d prefer to be fat but can’t bring themselves to say it for fear of what society may think of them. Maybe there’s some other reason altogether, one that perhaps they are not even aware of. This unknown reason, is probably one of the guiding principles of their life.
Sometimes, avoiding pain is more powerful and motivating than the end result that the pain is keeping you from. Why not just be happy being fat? Why put yourself through the struggles of trying to lose weight, then the disappointment when you stray from the plan and go back to your old habits? Why beat yourself over it? Well, you’re more motivated to beat yourself up about failing to lose weight than you are to actually losing the weight.
I have an adversary, who should not be an adversary at all, but I digress. Anyway, this adversary of mine goes to great lengths to point out how much of a better human being than everyone else she is. In particular, she likes to point out how much better than I, she is. At times, it’s actually quite amusing to see the lengths that she will go to. I’ve started referring to her as “The Palestinian” because she likes to martyr herself. I don’t know what this behavior gets for her, but whatever it is, she likes it. Maybe she feels guilt for something that she’s done, so she needs to point out how great of a person she is to negate or wipe out the bad deeds that she’s done. Maybe she just wants the attention, who knows.
Anyway, the impetus for this post was a conversation that Michelle and I were having on the drive home yesterday. I think I’m going to write some more out about this because I like the exercise.
