When it comes to motivation, it can be broken down into two categories:  negative motivation and positive motivation.  Negative motivation is “push” motivation… you are trying to push something you don’t like away from you.  Positive motivation is “pull” motivation… you are trying to bring something that you DO want closer to you.

Each has an area where, generally speaking, it is more effective.  Negative motivation is good for getting you started, for getting that initial movement that is often the hardest part to achieve.  It does not, on the other hand, last all that well.  Positive motivation is just the ticket for that… positive motivation can be a lifelong thing, but in general is not as great for getting the first sparks together to “light your fire”.

Negative Motivation

Negative motivation is very good for getting you moving.  It provides a sharp stimulus that is congruent with out instincts… that thing is unpleasant, get away from it.  Our instincts don’t make a distinction, in this case, between physical unpleasantness and mental unpleasantness… either way, our instinct is just to get away.

This can work very well… if your doctor tells you that you have cancer, and that unless you do what they say you are going to die, that provides some really strong motivation to change your ways and do what they say.  The motivation is sharp, strong, and focused… do what you need to (what the doctor tells you) in order to avoid something unpleasant (dying of cancer).   Since motivation is linked to action by way of a cost/benefit ratio, you can see that the cost (doing what the doctor tells you) is very low in comparison to the benefit (not dying).

Negative motivation has a very definite weakness, however.  It can be quite strong, enough to get you moving when other things wouldn’t, but what happens when you take the negative stimulus away?  The motivation dries up almost instantly.

In other words, once you feel like you are safe from whatever the unpleasantness was, there is no more motivation from that source, though you may keep up whatever changes you have made out of habit.

Positive Motivation

Positive motivation is generally not quite as good at getting you moving.  The natural instinct to avoid unpleasantness is not triggered, thus leaving you without the added boost that brings.  Even if there is something you really, REALLY want, unless the path from here to there is pretty obvious, there may be some doubt, some fear, about your ability to achieve that thing, making it harder to get started.

On the other hand, positive motivation doesn’t necessarily have a defined end, either.  If you lose weight because your doctor tells you that you have to or suffer some really unpleasant problems, then once you lose enough weight, that motivation goes away.  If you lose weight because you want to feel more fit and healthy, however, that motivation doesn’t really go away.  You’re still going to want to feel fit and healthy, even after you’ve achieved your original goals.

Positive motivation gets stronger as you go along.  Seeing progress toward your goal, whatever it may be, reinforces your positive motivation at the same time that it weakens your negative motivation… after all, you’re getting closer to your thing you want (positive, or “pull” motivation) and farther from the thing you want to avoid (negative, or “push” motivation).  Positive motivation can also help you conserve momentum when moving to a new goal after completing your current one.

Summary

The trick of motivating yourself is to know how to combine the two, and which to use when.  Negative motivation is good for getting started, which is why many people who speak about reaching your goals will tell you to share your goals and time frames with someone else.  This induces the negative motivation of not wanting to look bad in front of that person.  That can range from a medium to a very strong negative motivation.  At the same time, however, it makes you start framing the way you look at your goal in terms of that negative light.  This can lead to you looking for ways to avoid both working on the goal and the person with whom you shared that goal.

That’s where positive motivation comes into play.  Once negative motivation gets you moving, you can start to see your progress toward your goal, which helps to strengthen your positivel motivation into a force that can support further progress.  As you make more progress, and the end point (your goal) becomes clearer, positive motivation becomes even stronger, getting to the point where it can really drive you to the next goal once the current one is achieved… as long as you don’t slow down too much.  Once you slow down, you may need the kick from negative motivation once again.

So… that’s a really simple look at the differences between negative motivation and positive motivation.  Do you find that you use one more than the other?  Will you change how you attempt to reach new goals after thinking about the difference?  Let me know in the comments.