Ah… motivation.

Volumes heaped on countless volumes have been written about this particular subject. An explosion of material is available with the click of mouse and within seconds you could have a year’s worth of reading material to sort through and digest.

(I’m tired already. And not too motivated to read it either…)

I won’t pretend to be a psychologist and expound on things like drive theory, cognitive dissonance and radical behaviorism because, quite frankly, I don’t know anything about that stuff.

Motivation is either inside or outside you depending on the circumstances. Psychologists would call this intrinsic or extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is something that you enjoy doing just for the sake of doing it.

Extrinsic motivation might involve a tangible reward like money, coercion, or threat of punishment as a stimulus to act. Competition and the desire to win might be another form of external motivation.

So what?… Well, in a real way you feel the effects of these forces. You work out of the desire for money which in turn provides the necessities and frivolities of life. The degree to which you are successful is dependent on whether you like what you do vs. hate what you do, for money.

By extension, If you can align your intrinsic motivation with something the market will compensate you for, then you’ll be able to harness both sets of motivational forces to work for you. Imagine that.

In other words, “Do what you love and the money will follow”… (Yuck, can’t believe I quoted that…) but there is a kernel of truth to it.

When you align your passion, whatever that may be, with a market that is hungry for information, products and services based on that passion, you have the makings of a profitable business.

Trouble is, you often get stuck doing things that ignore that passion for whatever reason. Money, coercion, or threat of eviction… pick your poison.

Take a breather. Figure out what lights your candle and go for it. You’ll find out that work doesn’t seem like work anymore. And you’ll live happily ever after (well, closer anyhow).

In future posts, I wanna delve deeper into this subject because it’s so fascinating to see what make us humans tick. And, do the things we do.

Enough for now.