Motivation and how to get it
My friend Max, a philosopher in his spare time, says what we need to motivate ourselves is a kick in the pants. Wikipedia defines motivation as what makes humans or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a particular behavior at a particular time. Drives such as hunger, thirst, and procreation define our hierarchy of needs, meaning we prioritize certain urges. Motivation is a mixture of inherent and libidinal behavior, an impulse of an instinctual, genetic, and mental nature. There are two types of motivation; science calls them intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic is anything that comes from the outside and we do only because we get something in return, in our case money, love or status. Here, motivation is desire, and desire leads to slavery. We make ourselves dependent on the expected reward and omit or forget to do what brings us joy. Of course, we can undertake meaningful work, for which we are rewarded; most of us need to make a living, after all. That would be one motive. We can also accept a little slavery in return for doing what we want the rest of the time. The heart, that lonely hunter, is looking for true or intrinsic motivation, the desire to create, the spark or impulse that pushes us to do things that delight, satisfy, and liberate us for their own sake. And what if I am too lazy or indifferent? The ancient Greeks already knew that man seeks what pleases him and avoids what causes pain. Thanks to the close relationship between motivation and feeling, music, movement, dance, and – esthetic – pleasure have an arousing effect. They stimulate us but, coming from an outside source, they also lead us back to where we started. Science has no precise answers to the question of what drives us outside of the expected reward schemes either. The latest theories hold that the subconscious and its motivations cannot be deciphered, and it is the strength of the intention that matters. Our intentions serve self-regulatory purposes and help us develop a will, in turn leading to greater competence. But first we need that kick in the pants.
Dapperly yours
Susanne G. Seiler
Maputo Olive
Your poem nails home horseshoes
wears hat, mounts steed
does not look back.
And longing strives but cannot cross
the field. Like Zeno’s arrow.
From now on, the miles
are marked with milestones
of sapphire and a bush
of flowers each
a different fragrance, each a note
from your music that wore a hat
and spurred my wistfulness
Into the terraced night.
Tad Ipadeopla