The Duality Of Motivation

There are two forces at work moving you towards the Pursuit of your authentic life—depending on your current experience, you may only identify one.  

Your motivation to change different aspects of your life to align with what makes you happy, a greater sense of purpose, and to embody the version of your Self that allows you to bring the most to the world comes from either discomfort or ambition.

Discomfort arises from trauma, frustration, feeling a lack of purpose, or realizing you’re living someone else’s vision of your life.

Ambition arises from inspiration from others, an internal desire for growth, financial and emotional goals, or a desire for “success”.

The duality of motivation is fluid, flowing back and forth between discomfort and ambition. And sometimes, the two will be working together—you’ll feel discomfort and ambition at that same time. It is important to understand that motivation comes from these two sources so you can recognize the opportunity in both.

When feeling discomfort, it is easy (and common) to squander the opportunity to turn the difficult moment into motivation to make a change to get out of the situation. Instead of finding motivation, many understandably sit in the discomfort and feel stuck, discouraged, and even attract more of what is causing the discomfort to them.

When feeling ambition, it is easy to direct it toward outcomes that do not align with the authentic life you are pursuing. Someone else’s “success” might provide you with a boost of ambition to emulate what it is they did. When instead, that ambition should be directed toward the outcomes that move you closer to your authentic life.

The greater awareness of how you are feeling and where your motivation is coming from, the greater control you will have over directing your motivation and maximizing it.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC