Motivate

Everyone needs motivation. If we didn't have any kind of motivation, we wouldn't get up out of bed, we wouldn't go to work, we wouldn't do anything at all. Some of that motivation is basic necessity - we need to eat, sleep, go to the toilet. But other activities don't seem to require as much motivation such as we want to see our friends, we like the taste of chocolate, we enjoy sitting in front of the television, while these activities don't appear to need motivation on the surface, it is still there, we just don't notice it as much because we WANT to do them, they are enjoyable. However if we only did the activities we absolutely have to do and those we want to do, we would still have a problem. No one would be going to work, soon you would find yourself without much money and the chances are your health would go down the drain.

So what is it that stops us from living in this way? What motivates us? Of course, there is the long term wants - we need to go to work to earn money to buy whatever it is we want. But it is my personal belief that most of what motivates is learnt. We are taught from when we are very young that we have to go to school so we can get a job, this is the way of the world. Everything we do is based on how we have learnt to behave, how we want society to perceive us. We either fall in line or rebel, but both are what we are expected to do.

So next time you feel oddly motivated to buy something, think 'do I really want or need this? Or have I simply been programmed by the t.v, magazines, friends and family to think that I need it?' And when you get up to go to work, are you doing it because you have to (yes, I realise that money is very important) or because you wouldn't know what to do if you didn't? Just a few thoughts today.