Are You Motivated (Primarily) By Pleasure or Pain?

So my son Jason had an assignment to work on his business using an Instagram account. When I asked him about it last night, he said that Mom hadn’t set up the account yet (we need to create a new one for him). We laughed about the fact that he was using a loophole to get out of work — Mom was at a screening.

And while funny in a way, it is also a sign that he was doing it to AVOID PAIN (my disapproval) rather than GAIN PLEASURE.

You always know when people are acting to avoid pain — they will do the minimum, and seek ways to avoid it altogether. “The boss isn’t watching? Lemme loaf.”

On the other hand, if you work to GAIN PLEASURE, then the more you do, the happier you are. People who do this don’t need “discipline.” Screw “discipline” — they have HUNGER.

No one has to discipline Jason to play video games. You don’t have to discipline me to eat sushi. This is something people who work to avoid pain don’t understand about a LOT of wealthy people: they have made earning money a GAME. They love the PROCESS. They often have to be pulled away from their jobs, because any pleasure can become an addiction.

Of course, some of them can simply be so neurotic about poverty (caused, perhaps, by memories of a deprived childhood) that THAT drives them. Fear of poverty. “I’m going to be a bag lady” and so forth.

You can tell the difference with the thought experiment “if you won the lottery tomorrow, would you…