Psychology, drive, motivation. --- .This section is about motivation. Topics include: ( ) Motivators. ( ) Demotivators. ( ) What is motivation. --- 1/24/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) Caring increases motivation. (2) Apathy, the psychological state of not caring, decreases motivation. Apathy is the nihilists cop out. The nihilist says, "I don't care. It does not matter. Nothing matters." --- 7/31/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) Distractions vs. focus. (2) Opposition and discouragement vs. motivation. (3) Laziness and wasted time and half effort vs. urgency and total effort. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) How do people keep going? Repression. Ideals. Hope. Etc. (2) How do I keep going? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) Motivation is not something that can be turned on and off like a faucet. (2) Motivation is closely tied to emotion and thought. They all effect each other. --- 3/25/2000
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) Motivators: increase motivation. (2) Non-motivators: neither motivate nor anti-motivate. (3) Anti-motivators: reduce motivation. (4) Combo complex: something can have all 3 effects. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) Types of motivators, degrees of each, for any activity. Self motivated vs. motivated by others: family, peers, town, country, business, club. (2) Types of non-motivators. (3) Types of anti-motivators, destruction of motivation. What does it, how soon? Uncertainty. Risk. Opposition. (4) Effects of motivation or anti-motivation on psychology, behavior, and situation. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) What motivates? Visible progress. Vision, direction, purpose. (2) What demotivates? Mistakes, no progress, no direction, adversity, fear. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) When a person is highly motivated they will spend a great deal of time and energy pursuing something. They will think about it all the time, almost to the point of obsession. (2) When a person has a low level of motivation they will spend their time in unproductive activities like watching television. (3) Different people have different motivations for different things. (4) Motivation starts with thoughts. (5) Ethics and motivation. (A) Motivation is, in part, an ethical issue. Ethics is unavoidable in life. The things that motivate you are, in part, an ethical choice on your part. (B) Ethics is, in part, a motivational issue. The degree to which a person pursues the things that they think are ethically good is based on how motivated is the person. --- 10/28/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) When we talk about the gas or fuel that keeps people going we are talking about motivation. (2) Motivations can be conscious and unconscious. Conscious motivations are motivations that we can speak about. Unconscious motivations are motivations that we are unable to articulate. Unconscious motivations are very important in that they can affect our moods and well being. (3) Different things motivate different people for different reasons. Different things demotivate different people for different reasons. (4) The amount of motivators must be greater than the amount of demotivators. (5) Some people argue that both motivation and emotional mood are simply matters of levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. However, against that view, ideas can affect motivation, mood and neurotransmitter levels. Behavior and environment can also affect motivation, mood and neurotransmitter levels. The view that thoughts, behavior and environment affect motivation, mood and neurotransmitter levels is the basis of cognitive therapy or rational behavior therapy. --- 2/25/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- (1) You can tell yourself, "It does not matter if I do it now, because I can do it later. It does not matter if I do it, because someone else will do it soon anyway. It does not matter if I do it, because it will not make any difference in the world". (2) Or you can tell yourself, "If I do not do it real well, right now, the fate of the survival of the entire world, which rests on my shoulder, is doomed. But if I do it right the entire world will be perfect forever". (3) Both of these strategies of imagining can be useful. "1" in order to de-stress when overwhelmed. "2" to get yourself motivated. --- 01/28/1994
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- 90% of people are motivated by fear 90% of the time. --- 11/24/1988
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- A person can be motivated by ideas. A person can be motivated by emotions. A person is usually motivated by an attitude, which is a combination of ideas and emotions. --- 10/23/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- A person is usually motivated by what the person cares about. Thoughts and emotions, which combine to form attitudes, provide the motivation. Memory keeps the motivation in mind. --- 7/31/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Amount and type of motivation required to do something. Some things take little motivation. Some things take much motivation. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- An ever present (conscious and unconscious), burning, agonizing, painful want and desire causes an extreme sense of urgency, and an enduring effort for new goals. Constant development and evolution of desire, urgency and effort, produces results. --- 06/30/1993
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Commitment to x is related to drive, desire, focus, bravery, ethics, stability. It is an important phenomenon. Taking a stand. How long will you stick to x? In face of what opposition? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Common motivators. Survival. Greed. Envy. Jealousy. Fear vs. Hope. Truth and Justice. --- 6/12/2002
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Degree, speed, frequency, duration of motivation. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Demotivation: fear kills motivation. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Demotivators. (1) Why do people give up? (A) As young children, beaten down by parents. (B) As school kids, beaten down by the school system. (C) As adults, beaten down by job, marriage, kids. (2) Reasons people give for giving up on thinking and learning. (A) Others will do the thinking for us (academics, bosses, etc.). Being lazy and contented. The argument against this view: no one can do your thinking for you. (B) I am too dumb to think. The world is too complex and too difficult. There is too much information (information overload). (C) Just conform. The reason they hold this view: There are very few role models who learn. They end up following everyone else who doesn't conform. (4) Confusion. They don't know what or who to believe. --- 01/07/1997
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Demotivators. Psych out. Two types of psych outs: To be psyched out by someone else, with or without them intending it. To psych yourself out. Becoming psyched out can involve (1) Distraction. Destroys your concentration and focus. (2) Self doubt. Questioning if you can accomplish goal. Destroys your self confidence. (3) Demotivate. Makes you not want it. You think it is not worth the trouble. Question if goal is worth getting and having. (4) Intimidation. --- 05/18/1997
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Depression demotivates. Pessimism demotivates. Beware. --- 4/10/2001
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Different people have different motivations, for better or worse. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Direction, desire, urgency. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Emotion and drive. One view is that motivation is simply a matter of emotion based on thoughts. A second view is that basic drives (hunger and thirst) are a physical response and that higher drives are an emotional response. --- 5/15/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Emotion and motivation. What are some of the emotional components of motivation? (1) What are the emotions of ambition? What are the emotions of those seeking fame and fortune? (2) What are the emotions of those seeking justice? What are the emotions of those seeking to improve the world. --- 7/31/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Encouragement (from self and others). People need and thrive on encouragement. One achieves better results from praising people's accomplishments and encouraging people to do better than by negatively criticizing their efforts and discouraging them from doing things the only way they know how. Show them your way. If your way is better, they will adopt it. --- 12/29/1997
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Encouragement. (1) Discourageable: how easily, how often. Encouragement: how much needed, how often. (2) How often an individual falls prey to it vs. how often individual does either to others. (3) See optimism and pessimism. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Focusing and dwelling: (1) On your ideals is motivating. (2) On inability of reaching ideals is demotivating. (3) On fact that world is not ideal is demotivating. (4) The key is to find and solve problems, in a positive state of mind. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Getting motivated and staying motivated (to live). The importance of ideals, hopes and dreams in getting and staying motivated. --- 1/1/2000
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- How does and should one get motivated to do x? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- How motivated are you to do x, or not do x, and why? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- How much resolve vs. how easily discouraged in any situation, with any type and degree opposition. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- How to create a state of boundless energy and drive? How to create a sense of urgency? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- How to get motivated to do x? How motivated, and non-motivated, and anti-motivated, am I to do x, and why, and how to change it? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- I am motivated by principles. --- 7/31/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- If you were totally motivated to do X you would quit your job to do X. If you were slightly less motivated to do X you would spend every free minute doing X. --- 6/11/2002
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Interests, attitudes. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Keeping the dream alive and in mind. (1) When I want to do x most, I will do anything, conquer anything, put up with anything to get it. (2) When you lose motivation the attitude turns into "I don't want x. I don't want x most. I won't do or deal with y to get x". --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Me. (1) What destroys motivation? Low energy states due to lack of food, sleep. Emotional states like depression. (2) What improves motivation: urgency, reasons. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Me. (1) What motivates me? Accomplishment. (2) What non-motivates me? Lack of knowledge of importance. Lack of knowledge of urgency. (3) What de-motivates me? Lack of direction. Adversity. Fear of failure. Fear of success (fear of change due to getting goal). (3) Why? Is it healthy? If not, what should it be? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Me. Motivators. Morning affirmations. Things do exist. Right and wrong exist. Knowledge is possible. I can get (some of) the things I want (job, girlfriend, ideas) if I work hard. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Me. Motivators. My motivators: greed and money, sex, power. 12/30/1992. Not really. --- 11/30/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Me. What inspires and helps me most now is my own past writing. This is a good situation to be in. Cycle of growth. --- 02/24/1994
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Me. What motivates me it is (1) Survival, and (2) Doing the ethical thing. Luxuries do not motivate me. Every extra dollar I save is more time and money to spend doing philosophy. --- 11/15/1994
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- More than anything, people need motivation and inspiration. --- 04/24/1997
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Most human motivation is due to emotion and thought (attitudes) rather than instinct. --- 5/14/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation complex: % thought, % drive, % emotion. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation for any individual or type of individual. In general, or for any subject. People in general, specific types, and specific individuals. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation has a drive component, a memory component, an emotional component, a thought component, and an attitude component. Many combinations are possible. You can have the same goal but different means, reasons, emotions, etc. You can have the same means or reasons or emotions but different goals. --- 10/19/1999
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation is an attitude about a goal. The most important idea about motivation is what goal we pick and how strongly we are motivated toward pursing it. There are many possible goals. We order goals in a priority of importance listing. --- 8/8/2002
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation is key to fighting depression. To get motivated, if you have nothing that motivates you, you must change the things that motivate you, and to do that you must change your ethical values. --- 11/30/1996
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation is learned? Reinforcement (see behaviorism). --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation or obsession and compulsion? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivation vs. inspiration. (1) Motivation is something that provides impetus to do something. Motivation fires up the will. Motivation has to do with the will. (2) Inspiration is something that increases creativity. Creativity can not be willed. Inspiration has nothing to do with will. --- 06/05/1997
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivators: can do and want to do (id) vs. limits: can't do (super ego), actual and perceived. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivators: sex, money, fame, power. Unconscious vs. conscious motivation. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivators. (1) Urgency can inspire and motivate (time limits). (2) Mind blowing experiences can too (danger, adrenaline). --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivators. Competition: with self vs. with others. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivators. What keeps people going? (1) Pleasure. (2) Ethical principles of living with present. (3) Ideals for the future. (4) Lies or truths. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivators. What motivates people? (1) Emotions (anger, lust, fear). (2) Conformity. (3) Truth. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Motivators. What motivates people? Lies. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Need both motivation and direction. Motivation without direction = all reved up and no place to go. Direction without motivation = bump on a log. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- People get comfortable and it holds them back. People get complacent and stop trying. How can one motivate oneself? --- 12/1/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Problem approach. (1) Unmotivated for important things vs. motivated for unimportant things. (2) Too motivated vs. not enough. (3) Wrong object, wrong reasons. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Reasons and motivation. (1) What is your reason to live? (2) What is your reason to pursue any particular goal? --- 7/31/2006
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Reinforcement: reward and punishment, learning. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Related subjects. Emotions: directed at object, or caused by anything. And commonly associated thoughts. (1) Like: I like this. (2) Dislike: I don't like this. (3) Pain: this hurts. (4) Discouragement: this is getting me nowhere, this aint working. (5) Pleasure: this feels good. (6) Hope: if I do this, this may happen. There's no hope, no use, no chance, impossible. (7) Inspiration: I have seen a vision. (8) Anger. (9) Frustration: this sucks. (10) Happiness: this is great. (11) Sadness. (12) Fear of punishment, mistakes, success, or failure. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Related subjects. Environment and motivation. Environment requires, forces it, recommends it. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Related subjects. Learning of motivations. I should (should not) do this. I think vs. they told me. I don't know why vs. I agree vs. I disagree. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Related subjects. Society and motivation. Force. Persuasion. Society endorses it or not. Society sanctions vs. rewards it. Society makes no comment on it. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Related subjects. Thoughts: views and reasons why. Ethics: self deduced, vs. societally imposed. Values, ideals, priorities. (1) This aint right. (2) This aint perfect. (3) This is right, best, healthy, practical. (4) This is perfect. (5) This aint logical - doesn't make sense. (6) This is logical - makes sense. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Reward. (1) Promise of reward. (2) Giving reward on achievement. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Reward. Personal rewards vs. societal rewards. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Reward. What type, how much, how often, keeps a person doing x? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Self motivated (better than) vs. externally motivated. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Some do it for money, sex, power, material things, competition with others, competition with self, fame. To gain the adulation of peers, or the masses. To go down in the history. Because they like it. Because they are good at it. Because they are the only ones who can do it. Because they think it is important. Cooperation, to help others. --- 01/03/1994
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- To be motivated to pursue something, one must think it is important or urgent. Other people are motivated by things they think are fun, even if unproductive. --- 10/23/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Two pairs of factors. (1)(A) Self-motivated. You decide your goals. (B) Motivated by society. Society decides your goals. (2)(A) Motivated to help self. Egoism. (B) Motivated to help others. Altruism. (3) The problems is that most people are motivated by society (1A) to be egotists (2A), when actually it would be better if people were self motivated (1B) to help others (2B). --- 3/25/2000
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Two types of motivation. (1) Feeling motivated without any conscious thought why. Pure drive. (2) Feeling motivated by a conscious thought. Inspiration. --- 11/9/1999
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Types of motivation. To be motivated by principle. Principles are abstract thoughts. --- 11/28/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Typical attitudes (thoughts and emotions) involved. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Unmotivated or undisciplined. Motivation or discipline. Motivation is better than discipline. It is better to want to do something then to force yourself to do something. --- 3/30/1998
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Urgency and Importance are key concepts to the psychology of motivation. See: Philosophy, ethics, importance and urgency. --- 10/23/2005
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Ways (better and worse) how to get motivated. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- We are motivated by our attitudes (i.e., by our thoughts and emotions). (1) Motivation by thought. Motivated by what we think is right and wrong, good and bad. (2) Motivation by emotion. Motivated by what we feel is pleasurable and painful. --- 8/8/2002
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What accounts for people becoming philosophers, scientists, or anything else? Perhaps the dreams of young teens accounts for it. Young teenagers desire to be cool. They desire to be like the older teens. They desire to be less childlike. They desire to know what is going on. They desire to be smarter (future scientists and philosophers). They desire to be stronger, more coordinated and athletic (future jocks). They desire to be more beautiful, sophisticated and richer (future urbanites). They desire to have more power and authority (future politicians, judges and cops). The inequalities in these traits between adult peers or between child peers is not as great as between younger children and older children. The early teenager experiences an unconscious or conscious humiliation and envy in regard to older teens, which drives young teens to achieve. The point is that the early teen years may be as psychologically important as early childhood. What drives the individual is the relationship between younger kids and older kids. What drives the individual is not the relationship between kids and their peers, and is not the relationship between kids and parents. The crucial relationship is not between kids and adults. Kids don't want to be like adults. Kids look at adults as almost another species. The crucial relationship is not between kids and their peers. Kids don't want to be like their peers, who they often view as equally inept. They key is that the little kids want to be like the big kids. So the crucial relationship is between the little kids and the big kids. The little kids can scarcely articulate this feeling. The big kids rarely acknowledge and barely even recognize this feeling. But it hovers there like an almost invisible bond. --- 5/22/2000
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What attitudes keep people alive after the fun has gone and living becomes an unenjoyable, painful slog? (1) Don't let the jerks and assholes win. (2) Help those innocent little kids. When you begin to think you are part of the problem, it is all over for you. --- 01/07/1997
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What does motivate vs. what should motivate. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What keeps a person going? Love and happiness. Love of humanity. Love of the good. Love of ideals. Love of ideas. Happy to be alive. Happy to be. What keeps a person going even when the going is tough, and life seems miserable, when things go badly? Hope. Hope that things will change for the better. Having a purpose and meaning. Having a cause. Resolve, perseverance, determination. --- 3/21/2004
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What motivates, non-motivates, and anti-motivates: individuals in general, specific types individuals, and specific individuals. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What motivation complex is best or worst in what situation, for who. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What will you do for x, and not, and why? X motivates you to do what? --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- What. A motivation can be an emotion, thought, or attitude. --- 12/30/1992
Psychology, drive, motivation. --- Who is motivated to do what, how, when, where, to who, why? --- 12/30/1992