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Are You Motivated by Fear or by Love?

What encourages you to accomplish your goals? Is it a love for the outcome or a fear of not achieving your goal? Are you motivated by fear or by love?

When you’re pushing away from a negative consequence, you’re motivated by fear. When you’re pulling yourself toward a positive outcome, you’re motivated by love. In addition, how you feel whether you’re avoiding what’s feared or approaching what’s desired makes a difference in how well you function.

If fear leads to worry, it impedes your ability to think.

When you’re motivated by fear, your fearful thoughts can cause anxiety. This has both long and short term negative consequences. In the long term, your emotional, mental and physical health can suffer. In the short term, studies indicate that your cognitive function is compromised, which makes accomplishing your goal even harder.

A happy brain is a motivated and effective brain.

In striving toward a positive outcome, your brain’s dopamine system is active, Jan Hills explains. This can help make working toward your goal feel like less of a slog and more of an engaging journey.

Feeling engaged leads to intrinsic motivation.

As Dan Ariely explains in his video about intrinsic motivation, when you’re more engaged in what you are doing, you’re more likely to be motivated to continue for its own sake. It’s easier for you to be present and feel a sense of satisfaction as you’re proceeding toward your goal.

Being motivated by love draws you toward what can go right.

Facing your fears is a lot easier when you think less about your fear and more about what you wish to accomplish. When you’re motivated by love instead of fear, instead of worrying about what can go wrong, you’re drawn to what can go right … and that’s a more self-caring way to be motivated.

To transcend fear, we must move into love.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler

Motivated by Fear or Love

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