What Really Motivates People?

In this article we are going to talk about what really motivates people. What you will find that motivates people is kind of shocking.

What Do You Think Motivates People?

It is motivating music? It is a speech from Eric Thomas or Gary Vee? It is hearing positive encouragement? It is negative discouragement?

When it comes to motivation I find that positivity is extremely overrated and it doesn’t motivate people. Being encouraged really doesn’t lit a fire underneath anyone. Someone who is already motivated will be a little more motivated from positive encouragement but it won’t light a fire of motivation within them.

There is two things that motivate people the most. These two things are negativity and loss. These two things hold the most weight when it comes to motivation and lighting fire within someone.

Here is an example of loss: What if I told you that the amazon rain forest is the healthiest it has ever been, and there is more trees there now than ever. Also it has been providing more life to Brazil more than ever.

What would your reaction be?

You may not even react at all, because if you aren’t living in Brazil, you aren’t really going to care unless it effects you. Also positive news doesn’t really get people motivated.

Here’s the flip side: What if I told you that amazon rain forest is on fire and there is deforestation and these fires have been going on for over three weeks. Also what if I told that the amazon rain forest is responsible for 20% of our earth’s oxygen. Before these wild fires, I bet most people didn’t even know that the amazon rain forest was responsible for 20% of our earth’s oxygen. Basically making it our earth’s lungs.

Knowing this everyone all around the world is trying to help out and create funds to help the amazon rain forest. Everyone in Brazil is being more careful on how they use the land of Brazil. This loss motivates people to get up and help out. See the difference?

A Story About How Loss Motivates People The Most:

Ron and Diangelo are roommates and one morning Ron is woken up by Diangelo yelling at him that there is a sale on tires(gain) down at there local mechanic shop. Ron just rolls over and goes back to sleep, this doesn’t even move him. The next day Ron is woken up from his sleep again by Diangelo but this time Diangelo is yelling at Ron saying someone is stealing the tires from his car (loss). Ron hops up out of bed and runs outside to stop the person who is stealing his tires.

The sale of gaining tires didn’t get Ron to get motivated to get out of bed. The loss of his tires motivated him to hop out of bed and stop this loss. So it goes to show that loss motivates way more than gain.

Just like losing the love of your life, most people go into a depression for a couple weeks but this loss then gets to them so bad that they are motivated to kick this depressive state and make a better life for themselves. They want their successful to be their revenge, that is when people build empires. The ones who have loss the most are the ones who build the million dollar empires. Not just the loss of lovers, people who have loss family members, loss all their money in an investment, loss of their business, loss of anything makes you want to gain all of it back and more.

Now Here Is How Negativity Motivates People:

To prove this I am going to use me as an example. I remember when I told my dad that I want to be an author, create a YouTube channel, start a website, and develop a brand. My dad rained nothing but negativity on me, he told me that I was stupid and I should just stay in college and get a regular job like everyone else. He told me I was stupid and the chances of me succeeding are slim to none. This negativity lit a fire underneath me to go out and prove him wrong. In one year, I published a book, started a YouTube channel, created a website and a brand. I am not here to gloat, I am here to tell you that without the negativity I probably wouldn’t have achieved this much in one year. If it wasn’t for the negativity, I probably would only be half way through writing my first book, and I wouldn’t have started anything. When you have so many people doubting you, it creates this fire within you to prove them wrong.

The Flip Side Of This: If everyone and my dad gave me nothing but positive feedback, I probably wouldn’t have achieved what I did. When someone tells you that you can do something, this satisfied you without even accomplishing it. When someone gives you positivity and tells you that you can do something, you don’t feel like doing it anymore because you feel like you already achieved it, it satisfies you. Positivity satisfies you and then demotivates you because you feel like you already achieved what they said you could do.

When someone doubts you, you have all the fire within you to prove them wrong.

Just like J.K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter Series got rejected from twelve different publishers before finally getting published. Now what I think happened was there was so much negativity from not getting approved for being published, not once but twelve different times can really hold some negativity in your mind. After probably the third or forth time getting turned down, this probably lit a fire within her to produce more raw and potent material for the books. She most likely went even harder and longer on working on the Harry Potter books so she could get published. Maybe if she got published from the first publisher she went to, maybe the books wouldn’t have been that good and maybe she wouldn’t have made over a billion dollars after the Harry Potter series. The negative experience from getting rejected so many times pushed her into writing the most successful book series in the world. From 2001 til now(2019) Harry Potter stills brings in millions of dollars every year.

So without this negativity J.K Rowling wouldn’t have made it her soul mission to make the best book series the world has ever seen. She has accomplished just that. Harry Potter is still a huge hit today. (this is just my observation about her).

Negativity & Loss motivates people the most, way more than postivity and gain.