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Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

What is the force that moves you, inspiration or desperation?

Asked by Hypocrisy_Central (26879points) January 24th, 2010

What is your motivational force, inspiration or desperation? Like the fight or flight reaction it seems to me that people are motivated by the desire to get ahead of the fear of loss over the desire to gain. Say one needed a hefty amount of cash and they had to liquidate some assets. They may not liquidate their collection of stamps, vintage comic books, Waterford crystal to invest in classes or such that will arm them with information that might make them money to insane money in the future, but if they thought they were going to lose their place of living they would. Some would figure they can’t take those collectables with them and even if they held onto them another 15 years they would still not gain as much off them as they could generate from information or a business that would earn them dozens upon dozens of times more. What would get you to make a bold stroke, the desire to gain greatly or to try to prevent a big loss?

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11 Answers

belakyre's avatar

Definitely desperation. I never had the incentive to do anything about inspiration (although I do sometimes try to force myself into doing it).

nebule's avatar

I think if you have foresight, the desire to gain comes before the desire not to suffer a loss. I’m currently motivated by a desire to gain but in some ways that comes hand in hand with loss since if I did nothing about what it is that I want, I would by proxy, lose. It wouldn’t necessarily be a massive loss… but it could lead to that.

Ruallreb8ters's avatar

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

SadandLonely's avatar

Usually desperation. Though when I paint, it is inspiration. I can’t paint at all when I am upset or depressed (which is usually how I feel when I am desperate), yet painting makes me happy, so I wish I could… but I lose all inspiration when I am desperate.

rangerr's avatar

THE FORCE MOVES ME.
THE force.

LeotCol's avatar

@rangerr

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
-The Jedi Code (Based on the meditations of Odan-Urr)

@Hypocrisy_Central
I personally feel that its the desire to gain that motivates me. I think about where I want to be, then I’ll do as much as I can to get there.

HasntBeen's avatar

It’s an endless competition (although I would use the word ‘anxiety’ instead of ‘desperation’). Some of my actions come from anxiety (“if I don’t do X I might lose my job”) and some from inspiration (“I want to learn to draw better so I can illustrate the stories I tell my son”). I suspect everybody is pretty much the same in that regard, we respond to both types of motivating forces.

mattbrowne's avatar

Desperation cannot be a successful motivational force when it comes to learning. There’s a lot of evidence from neuroscientific research to back this up. When you are afraid of getting a bad grade you might improve somewhat, but usually you won’t excel. Avoiding pain is a fundamental factor in human behavior, but the result is mediocracy at best. Inspiration is the way to go.

Jude's avatar

Ho-hum

sweethottaco's avatar

Insparation from you my love is what motivates me to do better. I love you.

hungryhungryhortence's avatar

Inspiration coupled with my natural ambition and then tempered by big picture planning and experience.

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