Fear - A powerful “Negative” motivator. . .

Hi Douglas Hansen here,

Fear of falling actually creates many falls!

Have you ever consider how powerful Fear is?  It is a powerful “negative’ motivator.  I’ll even go as far as to say it is the cause of majority of our problems.  Fear we might make the wrong choice.  Fear someone will get more than us.  Fear of success.  Fear of failure; fear we will flunk a test; fear of people . . .  

An interesting thing about fear is we often do not notice, “It is why we are doing something, or not doing something.”

What are the mechanics of “negative” motivation?  

Simply put, it is a minus. 

·         It takes away from the situation. 

·         It cuts your progress short. 

·         It limits how far you can go. 

·         It subtracts from the picture. 

·         It stops progress. 

·         It restricts your efforts.

·         It confines  

·         It imprisons.

·         It locks up and prevents progress.

·         It impounds.

·         It brings the situation to a halt.

·         It . . .

It, well, it does many things, none of which move us “one step” closer, not even a millimeter, or [1]nanometer, closer to our goals and objectives, or the goals and objectives of our society.

You can see negative attempts to motivate people, even animals, all around us. 

·         A cuff to the side of the head.

·         A reprimand at work.

·         A yank on the least of a dog.

·         Someone yelling at their children in an attempt to get them to do their homework.

·         Grounding someone for coming home late.

·         A speeding ticket.

·         Judgments, in most cases, we just do not have enough information to make judgments.  We tend to point out what appears to be faults and problems because we choose to feel?  Past history, false news, . . .

·         And the list goes on.

Well then, the question I have been trying to answer is, “Why on earth do we use negative motivation at all?

Negative motivation hampers our body processes.  For example: Speaking in public can bring on so much fear that it can cripple movement, freeze a person’s mind, make them forget, cause termers, sweating, dry mouth, fainting, and much more.  It is powerful and can run rampant, destroying our best intentions.

Unfortunately, if it is a negative, it moves us, or our situation in a negative, or reverse direction, thus a negative motivator will never lead to success.

On the other hand; a positive motivator moves you forward, in the direction you wish to go. 

Seems pretty simple, and if that is so, why do we allow negatives to dominate our lives?  I’m guessing it is because they are easy.   How difficult is it to find fault?  Find problems with the football team and how they are playing the game?  Smack someone?  Walk away mad?  Or lean on things which move us in a negative direction, like: “because that is the way we always do it?”  Find fault with your spouse or children?  Find problems with an employer or fellow employees?  Yes, some easy is probably good, but a full diet of easy is not healthy. 

Here’s a question you may want to consider:  Does fault finding lead in a positive or negative direction?     Does it benefit the fault finder?   If it is a positive it will move us toward a positive or desired goal or outcome.   If it is negative, it will lead away from, or cripple our forward progress.  Yes, it is much easier to pick apart something.  Something else you may want to consider:  It seems to me, problem finders are a dime a dozen.  Solution finders are much more rare; kind-of like diamonds.  Here it is again, that silly goal or objective: Which choices or actions will lead to a life of abundance, healthy relationships, and love?

I have heard it said there are four great enemies of man: fear, clarity of mind, power, and old age.   It seems to make sense.  

Fear is our first great enemy. When you are able to manage fear and understand a majority of the ways it works to destroy, hinder, kill, injure, etc. 

Then the second is clarity of mind.  You are able to see things as they really are.  This can be pretty scary and overwhelming, thus there is another step to learn how-to manage.  As we grow we develop pictures of the way “we” think life is, or is supposed to be.  When those ideas are challenged, we defend them.  Why wouldn’t we?  It’s our belief that it “should be” the same as our picture.  

Unfortunately, a majority of the things we learn as we grow are opinions, beliefs, hearsay, quotes out of context, altered information to sell a product or idea, and more.  We have recorded this information on our internal computer’s hard drive.   Now when we need to refer back to that information, and examine it,  we may find a majority of the information is: untrue, distorted, colored, enlarged, miniaturized, inflamed, twisted, convoluted, torn apart into incomplete concepts, full of unwarranted emotion, etc.  

For example:  I was taught Christopher Columbus discovered America in the Niña, the Pinta  and the Santa Maria and also, while he was at it, proved the Earth wasn’t flat?   Well, more in correct information on my mind’s hard drive.  As early as the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras --- later followed by Aristotle and Euclid ---wrote about the earth being a sphere or round.  And historians say there is no doubt that the educated in Columbus’s day knew quite well that the earth was round.

Columbus did not “discover” America --- he never set foot on Plymouth Rock, in North America!  Apparently, the Pilgrims never stepped on Plymouth Rock either.

I heard it said that at first a true miner of knowledge, would be shocked to find out the amount of false information floating around and how little real knowledge and truth there is.    But ultimately, s/he would be gladdened because what is better, to have the pure gold of knowledge, or to have that gold buried in tons of ore.

Power is the third great enemy of mankind (woman kind too).  It is quite the intoxicant.  Look at all those who have become drunken fools immersed in their power.   Hitler is a prime example; Cesar may be another one, well it appears the list is fairly long.  So few, yet really great people have learned how to handle power.  Try naming a few?  We tend to admire and look up to them.  Although it seems much easier to remember the negative leaders.  Why is that?

The last, old age is the final enemy.  To have lived a vibrant life, full of activity, rich experiences, and more; then have it slowly taken away --- day by day has got to be pretty disheartening.  It looks like there is not a way to control this one; we must just fend it off for as long as we can.  

The point here is: a positive approach will improve the experience and assist in getting good results.  We can improve this situation, and those around us can assist in solution finding, encouragement, team work, love, friendship, etc. are positive goals which will create that world of abundance with good relationships – love. Or our own heaven on earth.

Food for thought, maybe if we understand these things better, we will be in a better position to build a better tomorrow, and learn how to coexist.

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[1] one billionth of a meter