The truth about infinite motivation is that you
already have it for certain activities.
For example, you likely eat, drink water, work, brush, shower, and socialize every day,
plus or minus a few activities maybe.
And you’ll likely continue these activities until the end of your life.
That’s infinite motivation.
And the cause of infinite motivation is necessity.
For example, if you’re stranded in the desert, you’ll have infinite motivation to find
some water, but only as long as you think it’s necessary to survive—and that water
is necessary to do that.
So necessity leads to motivation, but what causes necessity?
Necessity arises from your understanding of the world.
And your understanding of the world includes places that you want to go to, like good health
and wealth perhaps, and places that you want to avoid, like poverty.
And your understanding also includes the means or actions that will get you to both of those
places.
So for example, if in your understanding, you believe it’s necessary to get rich and
avoid poverty, in the same way you think it’s necessary to drink water when you’re stranded
in the desert, you’ll have infinite motivation to try and obtain money, and you’ll act
out the actions that you think are necessary to get you there.
So your understanding of the world leads to necessity which leads to motivation.
But how does your understanding change?
Your understanding of the world changes when you discover and assimilate new and useful
knowledge.
And really there are two ways you discover new knowledge: either you discover it through
someone else, which is imitation, or you discover it for yourself, which is innovation.
So discovery leads to a change in understanding which leads to a change in your perception
of necessity which leads to a change in motivation.
But what causes us to enter a process of discovery?
Discovery occurs when we enter a state of crisis, and a state of crisis is one in which
you don’t know (A) where you are, or (B) where you want to go, or (C) how to get from
where you are to where you want go, or all of the above.
So crisis leads to discovery.
But what leads to a crisis?
The cause of a crisis is a realization: specifically, a realization that your knowledge is insufficient.
So that completes the motivation cycle: realization, crisis, discovery, understanding, necessity,
motivation, and back to realization.
Now let me explain how the entire cycle works using an example.
We’re going to use the example of driving, because so much of life is like driving, where
you’re trying to get from some point A to some point B. So imagine that you’re driving
to the Pet Store, taking the same roads that you always do.
So this is the first stage, normal motivation.
And your motivations are oriented properly when you can get from where you are to where
you want to go.
And in this case, you arrive at the Pet Store with no problems.
So everything goes smoothly.
Now imagine a second scenario, where you go to where the Pet Store usually is, but it’s
no longer there.
So a realization dawns on you: your knowledge is insufficient and you have no idea now where
you are relative to the pet store, where the pet store is, and how to get there.
You enter a state of crisis, and this leads to a process of discovery.
So you meet some people nearby who say that they can help you get to the new location
for the Pet Store.
You follow them and arrive successfully.
Overcoming the crisis has lead to discovery of new knowledge through imitation, which
leads you to a new understanding of the world, which leads to a new perspective of what’s
necessary to arrive at the pet store, which restores your motivation in being able to
get there.
Life is back to normal.
But let’s imagine that you never met those people nearby, so instead, you start searching
the area nearby for the Pet Store and eventually stumble upon it.
This is discovery through innovation, and it leads to the same end result of having
your motivation restored.
And when it comes to motivation, people typically run into one of two problems.
Imagine a spectrum, and in the middle, is someone who is properly motivated.
This means that they can always get to where they wanna go from where they are.
On the right end of the spectrum is someone who’s wrongly motivated.
They are highly motivated, but they never get to where they wanna go from where they
are: they’re motivated in the wrong direction.
And this is because they never realize that their knowledge is insufficient.
They are too prideful and confident in what they know, so they remain motivated, but they
never arrive at their destination, and that’s because they never feel the need to update
their beliefs.
On the left end of the spectrum is someone who has no motivation.
This is typically because they are in a state of crisis, where they may have realized that
their knowledge is insufficient, but they haven’t engaged in a successful discovery
process that gives them new knowledge to overcome their crisis.
So in conclusion, infinite motivation occurs naturally when you know where you are, where
you want to go, and how to get there from where you are.
A crisis in motivation occurs when you realize that you have insufficient knowledge to get
to where you want to go.
Crisis is resolved through the discovery of new and useful knowledge that allows you to
arrive at your destination, and new knowledge is discovered through one of two means: imitation
or innovation.
Imitation is when you copy someone else’s solution to your problem, and innovation is
when you come up with your own.
The discovery of new knowledge updates your understanding of the world, which updates
what you perceive as necessary to get to your destination, and the correct perception of
necessity leads to the restoration
of your motivation.