I think I understand human motivation now?

[Dylan Page]

I’ve come to the conclusion that people do things for 2 reasons. Chasing good feelings and alleviating themselves from bad ones. This may seem obvious, but when I say everyone, I mean literally everyone. You could say, well a drug addict does it for sure, but what about someone chasing enlightenment? Don’t they have some kind of higher motivation? The answer is no. People seek to understand the world around them and themselves for a sense of control, perhaps the high of superiority, an escape from nihilism, and a bunch of other different reasons, all ultimately coming back to chasing highs and escaping lows. I personally pursue understanding because I am unsatisfied with chasing highs (whenever I chase a feeling the thought that it’s meaningless and shallow pops into my head) and am disgusted by nature (and hope to somehow alleviate this disgust through deeper understanding or making change in the world). 
 

But the jist of this post is that everyone is motivated by feelings! Not ideas, not logic, not morals, but feelings!

Any thoughts?

Edited May 30, 2020 by Dylan Page

[Osaid]

@Dylan Page I've always thought about this. That everything we do is ultimately for happiness.

[Dylan Page]

@Osaid right, and we tend to use “morals” or “logic” to justify what we really care about, and that is a feeling. Whether it be the feeling of being popular, or intelligent, or whatever. The people that want to make the world a “better” place think they are doing something almost fundamentally important, but in actuality, they are trying to make it better in their own eyes. And of course, people are also motivated by running from bad feelings as well and I’m sure I don’t need to explain the unfortunate variety of all of them.