Is avoiding pain (an undesirable situation) more motivating than positive motivation?

[Vision]

I have found that in some ways I can be more motivated to avoid Wage Slavery than my vision and Life Purpose.

The latter feels better to be motivated by, but it doesn’t light a fire under my ass.

The former on the other hand, does light a fire under my ass, and sort of kicks me into taking action.

Thoughts?

[itsnutsandbolts]

You're talking about negative reinforcement vs. positive reinforcement. It doesn't matter which you use, presumably you'd use a mix of both anyway over a period of time.

[Leo Gura]

Negative motivation will always be inferior because as soon as you don't have pain in your life your motivation will drop to zero.

You need to be motivated by some inspiring, constructive, creative vision. Not by avoidance of pain. You won't create anything great by merely avoiding pain. All you'll get that way is mediocrity.

The point of escaping wage slavery is to then use that freedom to create something amazing.

[Vision]

24 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Negative motivation will always be inferior because as soon as you don't have pain in your life your motivation will drop to zero.

You need to be motivated by some inspiring, constructive, creative vision. Not by avoidance of pain. You won't create anything great by merely avoiding pain. All you'll get that way is mediocrity.

The point of escaping wage slavery is to then use that freedom to create something amazing.

I’m not talking about one or the other. Just a combination of both, maybe a higher ratio of positive motivation is good with some negative motivation left over to not get lazy. 

Ideally, one would be completely positively motivated. This is the most selfless form of motivation.

I’ve found that it doesn’t really give me a kick in the ass the same way negative motivation does.  
 

On the other hand, maybe you would be more motivated to do the things necessary to avoid wage slavery if you know it’s for your Life Purpose (positive motivation), rather than just avoiding the experience of wage slavery (negative motivation)? 

In which case, the things you do to avoid wage slavery can be seen as an extension of your Life Purpose as it is what funds your Life Purpose, even if what you are doing to fund your Life Purpose is completely unrelated to your actual Life Purpose.

What are your thoughts on this perspective?

[Leo Gura]

5 minutes ago, Vision said:

On the other hand, maybe you would be more motivated to do the things necessary to avoid wage slavery if you know it’s for your Life Purpose (positive motivation), rather than just avoiding the experience of wage slavery (negative motivation)? 

Of-fucking-course.

Your problem is a lack of vision.

[Vision]

@Leo Gura

I used to be focused on my vision but lately I have been forgetting about my vision. How do you remember your vision?
 

What are some effective techniques for increasing the clarity and pull of your vision? 

Visualization and a vision board?

@mandyjw You talk about dream boards like Nahm does, right? What are your thoughts? 

[Leo Gura]

18 minutes ago, Vision said:

@Leo Gura

I used to be focused on my vision but lately I have been forgetting about my vision.

That's the problem.

Quote

How do you remember your vision?

What are some effective techniques for increasing the clarity and pull of your vision? 

Visualization and a vision board?

My LP Course is all about that.

Ain't it just perfect that your username is Vision?

[Danioover9000]

@Vision

4 hours ago, Vision said:

I have found that in some ways I can be more motivated to avoid Wage Slavery than my vision and Life Purpose.

The latter feels better to be motivated by, but it doesn’t light a fire under my ass.

The former on the other hand, does light a fire under my ass, and sort of kicks me into taking action.

Thoughts?

   Negative visualization does have a place and time, it has it's usefulness but it's short term, I'd leave it as a last resort if I need to be brute forcing out of a very bad emotional state, or find myself in a complaining state or unproductive state. I reserve that negative visualization to only humble me or create appreciation, because some people are far worse off than me for example.

   Positive affirmations and visualization is the more ideal way to generate motivation. Just a few minutes or so of seeing myself box while telling myself positive things, and I'm motivated to exercises or to shadow box or drawing and more. Both the outcome and process of getting there is included in the visualizations as well.

   If you really want to supercharge this ability to visualization, go and study NLP. After I did that, I can induce massive amounts of motivation because I understood the inner mechanisms, and each elements that make up my sense making, and how to switch how I see myself, as 1st, 2nd, 3rd person and so on, and the sub modalities that make up each sense modality I have in my mind and my ability to contextualize across other contexts.

   For a small example, for me, 1st person viewing produces the most intimate connection to that short or long term goal I want, and after designing that vision how I want it, the last step is seeing it in 3rd person and creating this 'distance' as I dissociate myself further away, I see the vision going away from me in days, weeks, months and years, and find myself in the present looking at the far future of that vision. It both sobers me to the hard work required, and creates the additional desire to go after that which I see in the future and re-contextualizes habits and actions I had difficulty performing because say of resistance, to doing those activities in a smoother way.

   Also keep in mind it may be different for you, so it's worth the effort to learning how your mind works and judo that to your advantage. Balance is key as well. Remember: be strategic, decisive, proactive and visionary!

   If you also tend to forget your vision, it either isn't exciting and impactful enough, or you don't have actual copies of those images you can pick up every morning/night. Go and make a vision board, ideally draw those short term goals or print and peg them on the board. And go back into your mind to see if you can make them even more exciting.

[Bando]

Do both be aware of the limitations of negative motivation but you can get FAR with negative motivation once youve feel youve reach the point where negative emotions wont drive you do some reflection and think of ways who you use positive emotions to get what you want