Our Flawed Motivation
We grow up with parents and teachers telling us what to do. Do this. Do that. You better not do that. You better do this.
This trains us to only do stuff to get people off of our case.
Why do I take my shoes off in the house? So my dad won’t yell at me.
Why do I do the dishes? Because my mom told me to.
Why do I turn in my homework? So my teacher will like me and give me a good grade
As we grow up, we learn External Motivation. In simple English, we learn to only do stuff that people tell us to do, to get them to stop bothering us.
Once we graduate high school we are handed over from the family and the school to the job. Now the boss takes the place of the parent and teacher.
Why do I go to work? So my boss doesn’t fire me.
Why do I work hard? So my boss will be happy with me.
Why do I turn in my work? To get my boss off of my case.
Most people spend their entire lives, only operating with external motivation. They do stuff to appease other people, because that’s the only source of motivation they learned. Do the thing to get the person telling me to do it to stop bothering me.
Unfortunately, this means that you are never in the driver’s seat of your own life. The parent / teacher / boss is in the driver’s seat. They write the task list. You complete the tasks. They write a new task list. You complete the tasks. And that is your life. Completing other people’s task lists. Depressing, isn’t it?
I’m here to tell you that there is another option. There is an escape from this hamster wheel. It’s called Internal Motivation, or Self-Motivation. In my opinion it is one of the most essential character traits to develop for any entrepreneur. Why? Because if you’re going to run your own business, or project of any sort, you have to be self-motivated. No one is going to show up with a task list for you, you have to write your own.
If you can’t write your own, if you can’t be self-motivated, then you will always have to have a parent, teacher, or boss telling you what to do and how to do it. If you can’t develop self-motivation, someone else will write your task lists for the rest of your life.
Personally, that sounds awful to me. That’s why I’m writing this newsletter right now. No one told me to do it. No one even expects me to do it. I just feel like it. And in my opinion, that’s the best motivation you could possibly have. Doing what you feel like doing, following your instinct, and writing your own task lists. The alternative is sitting around waiting for someone to show up and tell you what to do.
It’s not your fault if you have that mentality. It’s how we were all trained. Parents and teachers tell us what to do. We do it. Then we graduate and get a boss to fill that role in our lives. However, you can break that mentality by developing a new one. A self-motivated mentality. Instead of getting home from work and immediately turning on the TV, playing video games or whatever you do to zone out, start building something. Write your own task list and start creating something, that over time, will decrease your dependence on your boss. The alternative is a lifetime of getting told what to do. Self-motivation is the only path to freedom.
