Too many people belittle their work by drawing on lesser motivations than the ones available to them.
It is a mistake to draw on motivations that are selfish, short-term, and extrinsic. Examples are: I want to make money today, I want to be famous today, I want others to pay attention to me.
The right motivations are long-term, intrinsic and in service of something greater than the self. It is the motivation to discover truth, to have joy and to solve problems without knowing how you will be rewarded.
I will draw primarily on creative work here, but deep motivation applies equally to service and love.
How to tell if you’re driven by the right motivations?
The timbre of your work signals the quality of your motivations.
The work you need to be doing is the work that pours out of you despite yourself. This work interrupts your deadlines and ignores your insecurities. It is never due, but you find yourself returning to it—especially when you don’t have time.
The work of the deepest of motivation is pure expression. It’s your way of being in this world. It is meditation, it is trance, it is transcendence.
This is the work that will ultimately release you from your obligations, your ambitions, and your self. It directs itself and approaches only truth or ecstasy.
This is not work you do, it has a life of its own. You just sit down and remove the obstacles to its existence.
Disclaimer
Life is also about short-term, selfish motivations. You need to pay the bills. And to survive.
I admire how you take responsibility for others and yourself. Even if most of your time is spent acquiring what you need—you should do that, you need it.
But you must know that the work that puts food on your table is not necessarily the work that nourishes you. There will be no substitute for work of the deepest motivations. You will have to find fifteen minutes for it in your day.
Work for your stomach, but do not forget to nourish your soul.
Motivation is the key to consistency
If the fastest way to make $100 determines your writing, you will gradually erase yourself in searching for the best platform, the best article-type, the most queried search, the best affiliate program and the most ads.
When things don’t go according to plan—and at some point, they won’t—you will leave.
If you write for truth or for beauty, you will be immune to the passing currents and the fads. You will be able to write without thinking much. And you will be able to write without expectation.
Motivus
Motivation comes from the Latin motivus, which means moving. Your motivations move you and set the direction in which you strive.
When you have long-term, singular motivations, you allow your body of work to take you somewhere. Over time, you trace some meaningful arch in the map of existence, your work becomes the archive of your time as an inhabitant of this world.
When you have diffused, short-term motivations, you allow yourself to be taken in all directions. You fritter away in service of the next moment.
This is the movement of vibration, not progress. Though it leaves you just as exhausted, your destination is often sideways, and is always at the mercy of the fickle whims of the world.
Your Work is an Answer To the Questions of Your Life
Ultimately, your motivations determine the questions you ask. And the questions you ask set the constraints for the solutions you can find. Thanks Leon Hendrix, for putting this point so excellently in your video. Now what questions will you let direct your life?
How do I make money from my art today?
How do I get the most readers today?
What will he/she/they like today?
OR
How can I move the reader?
How can I approach truth?
How can I create joy?
Your work over time will be an answer to your questions. Pick them wisely.
Finally,
Your deep motivations will find you when you trust inwards—backing yourself—and look outwards—striving to create value. And when those motivations do find you, you’ll no longer be waiting for something else. To moved itself is enough.
I aspire towards truth and joy, and share my findings on my email list.