The Most Important Motivation Theory

Before explaining what this most important theory of motivation consists of, I invite you to watch these 3 minutes of pure motivation.

In this video they invite us to think about something that gives meaning to your life, a personal goal that you would like to achieve, something that gives meaning to your life:

There are various theories of motivation but in this article I am going to focus on the most important motivation theory, the one that pushes us or slows us down in this life:

1) The desire to avoid pain.

2) The desire to get pleasure.

Almost every decision we make in our daily life is motivated by one of these 2 powerful forces, are the 2 main paradigms in our life.

Sometimes our logic tries to combat these two powerful motivating forces, but victory is usually short-lived. Here is an example:

- Every smoker knows that this habit it is harmful. Your logical mind knows that it would be better if you quit smoking. So why do you keep smoking? Because emotionally, smoking represents pleasure and quitting smoking represents pain. I know what I'm talking about, I'm a smoker 🙁

The only way for a smoker to quit is to anchor the pain in their habit and the pleasure in quitting, only then you will find the necessary motivation to quit smoking. This requires having a long-term perspective, rather than a short-term point of view.

The irony about smoking, or any harmful habit, is that what causes pleasure in the short term is going to bring pain in the long term.

Understanding how pain and pleasure influence our lives is the first step toward taking control. We all have the ability to use our mental influence to reestablish our emotional anchors. In other words, we can choose what is painful and what is pleasant.