Beyond Passion - What REALLY motivates?

[Carol Cole-Lewis]

The discussion Rocky started about passion got me thinking.

What motivates people to accomplish anything? In my own life, I drove myself to achieve some status as a competitive bodybuilder because it was a way I could focus my energies into a creative and healthy endeavor, rather than destroy myself through drink or drugs due to the incredible pain I was experiencing at the time.

It’s been said that people are moved to action for two (and only two) reasons:

1. The fear of pain
2. The anticipation of pleasure

There are no other reasons. Or, are there?

Right now, my husband Clovice and I are involved in starting a new company. Its focus is to provide sustainable small temporary housing solutions (read: a green FEMA trailer replacement) “Why are we doing this?” I keep asking myself. I mean, “Why are we REALLY doing this? What is the core, the essence, the driving force behind us taking everything we have and are, and plunging it into this venture?”

Of course, I can only answer for myself, so I explored the following possibilities:

Is it because….

1. …It would be a really cool thing to be able to provide disaster relief housing to people in need? Nice, but not really.
2. ....if this thing takes off, we’re going to be fabulously wealthy? I’ve always been happy with enough, so, no.
3. ….if we don’t get this thing a bit higher off the ground, we’re going to crash and burn? No. I’ve been there before in my life and survived.
4. ….of the fame and recognition we’d receive from the success? Both Clovice and I are Myers Briggs “I’s” so it’s highly unlikely.

When I came up with all the reasons I could think of – all which ultimately had a pain or pleasure component associated with them – I honestly could say it is none of these that drive me (and I might even say “Us” at the risk of speaking for Clovice) to do this. It’s hard to put a word or a concept to it because it is beyond pleasure or pain. It is something we just HAVE to do. I can’t find a word to describe it.

It’s probably the same reason Maxx, my nephew, just signed up with the Marines. Ever since he was a kid in diapers, he would turn his stuffed animals into pretend guns because his mom wouldn’t let him have weapons as toys. The military is in his blood. He just HAS to do it.

This “HAVE to do” is beyond passion, beyond emotion, beyond any feeling.

The closest picture I can paint for you is that it’s like doing a jigsaw puzzle. You’ve tried hundreds of piece you swear should have fit in a particular spot, and you even leave one of those pieces in that space for awhile thinking it belongs there. Then, all of a sudden you have a piece in your hand you KNOW is the correct one – you remove the impostor and replace it with the one you are holding. Voilà! Eureka! Alleluia! It exudes rightness, correctness, truth and beauty.

We HAVE to bring our company into the world – Maxx HAS to be a Marine – because the doing in itself creates this deep Knowing of rightness at the depths of our beings. You may have well asked us the question, “Why do you breathe?” The answer is almost the same. There is no emotion attached to it. IT just has to be done.

So, I ask you:

Is there a word we could give to this state, this “IT”? Is IT the ultimate power behind any inspired goal, vision, action, whatever? Do we have to have IT to achieve true success – in the workplace, at home, wherever? If our managers and company executives have IT, would they inspire success from the top down? How can everyone find IT? Can you go your whole life without having IT and still experience real joy and happiness in life and at work?

[Carol Cole-Lewis]

I think we came from the same root stock, Dean.

I have no trouble with the "Biggies" (what I mean by that, is no trouble in making the big decision. I decided very quickly to get married - all three times I made that decision :-)

Day-to-day I've been driven into inaction and overwhelm because I "think" too much. Lately, I've allowed myself to focus on the vision and let the action that results be enough. No guilt, no anxiety, no looking back.

I certainly sleep much better at night.

(btw, Clovice and I have been married 11 years. I finally got that big decision right....)

[Rocky]

That is a spectacular article and fascinating question. I don't know what to call "It" But "it" is in all of us. I think it is the part of us that wants to do something bigger than we are. "IT" is not for money or glory, but for the innate drive to accomplish something beyond our normal everyday desires. Art Berg wrote a wonderful book titled "The Impossible just Takes A Little Longer" "It" flows throughout his story. Art lived by the motto "Invictus" a poem written by William Ernest Henley. Invictus is a great poem that talks about overcoming whatever life throws at you and maintaining that you alone are the master of your fate. "It" is that something that Viktor Frankl, Jim Stockdale, and Elie Weisel had that allowed them to survive and thrive after enduring horrible conditions imposed on them by other men. "It" is that something that Henry Ford and Thomas Edison had that allowed them to create and invent new and unimaginable things. "It" is what Helen Keller, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Theresa had that allowed them to transcend circumstances to create new hope for mankind. I don't know what to call that special something that drives people, but I know "It" is there. "It" dwells in all of us. Some people have a greater ability to get in touch with "It" than others. That is the burning question for me, "What is it that allows some people to connect with this "It" Or maybe it should be "What prevents some people from being able to connect with this "It".

Carol,
This might be the best discussion question I have come across. You have written a wonderful thought provoking article. I see your best seller in "It".

[Carol Cole-Lewis]

I came across the term "invictus" at a Tony Robbins seminar I attended back in '94. The concept took me from my life in corporate Britain and enabled me to return to the US to live the life I wanted to live, not one I thought I was supposed to endure.

Hey, if I am moved to write the book, I may ask you to collaborate or edit "It", Rocky. You were the inspiration for this tome, and your insights above add clarity to the thought.

[Denise Worrell]

For me the word is compelled. Once an idea takes hold in my mind, there is no turning away. I would agree with the characterization of a calling, except that I've been "called" in a variety of directions in my lifetime, and I'm not sure "callings" work that way.

My latest compulsion/calling a bookkeeping business (http://www.1866dobooks.com) that I started 4 years ago. I found a niche and am fascinated by the potential, and the idea that I can do this thing! Maybe it's a little bit of a Climbing Mt. Everest Mindset--"because it's there"--that drives me. Maybe it's validation of who I think I am, or who I think I might be able to be.

Whatever it is, I'm compelled to "do this thing." In fact, I'm having so much fun that I'm already trying to figure out what business I can start next. Maybe it's just the entepreneur spirit.

Haven't I just nailed this one down?? Compulsion/Calling/Validation/Entepreneur Spirit. Or something. But I guess that's the question.

[Carol Cole-Lewis]

LOL!

Fun is so important, isn't it Denise?! It's so interesting how many have forgotten how easy it was to learn as a child thorough play.

Good luck on this and all your future business ventures.

[Zane Safrit]

I just read David's email newsletter directing us here. As I was clicking (and waiting...) to this site, I formed my comment in my head. Something around the standard answers of "peer recognition", blah-blah.

And it's a valid and important reason or motivation for doing something. I'm not disparaging it.

But the question and the comments here offer so much more depth and honesty and even searching that the only answer I can give definitively is to the last question: Can you go your whole life with having IT...? NO.

As David points out in a later comment, we can know all the various names of IT that's been ascribed to IT by various cultures over the ages and still not know IT. Until we know what IT can do...have experienced IT grandly or quietly...and the joy (ok, with a sprinkle of non-joy) it brings...what's there to say?

It's a great post and a great series of questions to open up the day's thoughts to IT, us, what we can do, what we could do...what possibilities await. Thanks. My Monday's looking up.

[David Zinger]

Carol,
Your post and the comments that followed made me think of one of my favorite "TED Talks." Eddie Reader singing and Thomas Dolby playing: What You Do With What You've Got. If any of you have not listened, I encourage you to listen. If it loads slow in this window you can always click here to watch it at TED.

[Carol Cole-Lewis]

Yes, "which ones are the cripples and which ones touch the sun?"
A stunning song. I cried.

[David Zinger]

It always both inspires me and brings me to tears. I can't help but play it when I need to refocus or re-energize my own engagement.

[Aaron Stannard]

I find that personal ownership is a powerful motivator - I'm not talking about ownership stake in the company or equity persay, but ownership of ideas and expressions.

Maybe it's just me, but I find that having a personal stake in my company's marketing efforts, my voice and words, makes me more determined to see that campaign be successful. I personally get huge amounts of satisfaction when someone reads my SmartDraw blog entries or views one of my screencasts and I'm sure the other employees who've contributed to our campaigns feel the same way I do.

So what I'm saying is thus: people are motivated by seeing their ideas and expressions of those ideas put into action; in my experience it has been personally empowering and I'm certain it's empowering for other employees too.

[Carol Cole-Lewis]

Yes, Aaron!

I've never had a baby, but I am reminded of the desire to reproduce something that will survive long after I am gone. Also, there's the urge to belong to a cause or organization bigger than me that will still exist even beyond when my nieces and nephew's grandchildren are old.

I guess the motivation to express ideas and see them in action may derive from this innate biological imperative??

Clovice feels the same way as you do, Arron, about his musical compositions....

[Carol Cole-Lewis]

Oh, yes, you may be interested in this TED talk by Susan Blackmore on memes and temes....