November 17th, 2009] [
In my previous posts, I’ve mentioned how human beings operate on these two basic emotions: fear of pain, and desire of pleasure.
So yea, basically we do certain things either because we are cowards or we are greedy for something. 
I’ve also pointed out that the fear of pain is often a stronger drive of motivation than desire of pleasure.
Meaning that people are more likely to have motivation trying to avoid anything that causes them to feel unhappy in life rather than the desire of something that would make them feel good.
Now you’ve understood that fear and desire are the two drives, how can we use them to our advantage? How can we use these two powerful drives and instantly create powerful motivation and passion for the things we want in life?
As you can probably tell from the title, I’m going to talk a little bit about how to use the greater drive of motivation – fear, and generate a sense of purpose and motivation in our lives at almost any time during the day instantly.
Motivation is an extremely important factor of success in anyone’s life. It doesn’t matter if you are a genius with every single skill in the world, as long as you don’t have the motivation to get started and persist on anything, disappointment will be the your only result.
Therefore, I will share some of the things I know that will ensure peak motivation for you if you understand and use it correctly. 
My experience with despair and fear
I remember a few years back, I was this loser who always sat on his lazy-ass in front of the computer all day immersed in mindless and pointless activities. I did pretty much one thing – A BIG NOTHING.
I had no school life, no social life, no personal life, NO LIFE. When people joked about how I had no life, I was sincerely hurt:(, because I knew that was true. So if you told me that before and you are reading this, apologize to me now damn it!
To sum up my past in three letters: FML.
I’m not going to get into how my life became shitty, because I’m going to use that for another post – I hate spoilers! 
.
I failed miserably at school (as an Asian that was THE ULTIMATE PAIN!), failed at my health, failed at social interaction and ultimately I failed myself (depression).
Clearly that was definitely a hard time for me, especially at such a young age too.
But if you ask me now if I regret living through that, then I will definitely tell you with complete positivity: “Hell no.”
Why? Because although I received poor education in school as I was busy feeling sad, I did however, receive a tremendous amount of education on how to be happy through my sadness.
All of those shitty things that happened to me in the past caused me to think in a new direction. It caused my mind to revert to a state where it was so desperate get out of painful situations that it received great motivation for action. Yay for me! 
It almost felt like the suffering was a saber-toothed tiger chasing after me, and that situation triggered the fight-or-flight response, and caused great energy and motivation that made me do anything to get out of it.
My main point is this – my painful past provided me with such a great fear that it gives me this huge motivation for wanting to avoid pain and achieve pleasure through it.
I now have a reason to achieve a healthy and happy life, because I fear that my future will become what I’ve experienced in my past. Now that’s a POWERFUL reason.
The Method: How to use your fear for motivation.
Fear is a powerful motive for action. Many of us do not realize it, but most of our actions may always root back to an underlying fear. However, our fears can also sometimes lead to a massive amount of inaction rather than action.
So how do we use fear to our advantage and generate action? Well, first you must take your fear and use it specifically so that it would scare you into the right direction in life. That is the ultimate use of fear, let it push you to where you want to be.
How do we do that? By visualizing a specific situation that makes you scared and also makes you want to avoid it
There is this method that I practice every single morning after I wake up. I visualize my future and what my life will be like in about 5-20 years later. ( I hope my hair will still be there)
I think about a few self-limiting beliefs that I still have these days and imagine what it would be like if I had kept all of those beliefs with me all the way for about 20 years into the future.
I imagine what it would be like if I kept on believing that I am lazy, inconsistent, isolated, and incompetent for 10 or even 20 years straight? What will be my life then?
- If I look into the mirror in the future…will I be some fat slob who never shaves without a job and living off of his parents?
- Will I be a loner who feels extremely bad about himself and is constantly depressed again?
- Will I have failed at life?
I try to visualize in as much detail as possible, as if I had lived a day in my miserable version of a future. Some of you might say, “well, doesn’t this method de-motivate you? Because you all see is your miserable future.” It will only “de-motivate” you if you believe that version of your future is inevitable.
In order to avoid feeling your miserable future is inevitable, you must have clarity in your life in general. You must know what you want from it in a clear sense, so that when you are exposed to a negative outcome of your future, you’d know exactly what you want to avoid – instead of feeling unsure if that is the truth.
I know I have a choice and you should know that too. YOU HAVE THE POWER to direct where you want to go in life. And through this exercise, you could feel a great sense of motivation of wanting to avoid that chance of a miserable future.
Try this method, however, first be clear about your direction in life.
Steps:
- Have clarity in the direction of your life. Be specific and clear about what kind of person you’d like to be in a few years, and what kind of lifestyle you would like to have.
- Think about 3-4 self limiting beliefs that you have right now.
- Visualize as much in detail as possible with what your life would be like 5 years from now if you still kept your limiting beliefs with you. Visualize as if you are living a day of your life 5 years from now.
- Think about your financial situations, your relationships, your personal health, your happiness, and your career. What would they be like 5 years from now, if you still act the same without any changes? Will there be an improvement in those aspects of your life? Or will they eventually be sabotaged by you?
- What if you visualize your life 10 years from now? What about 20? Will your life be even worse?
- Take a deep breath and come back to the present, feel relieved that you still have a choice over your beliefs and actions. You still have the freedom to choose which path to go down to. You still have the power to consistently improve your life.
Use desire of pleasure for further motivation
Oh I’m not done with the methods, because using fear to scare you into the right direction isn’t enough. Although fear is the bigger drive of motivation, it is still only part of the work.
Now that you have fear pushing you into the right direction, you’d need desire to pull you in the same direction for the double of power and motivation.
By using desire, visualize a future where all of your limiting beliefs are gone. What will your future be like now if you have healthy and successful beliefs?
Steps:
- What would my life be 5-20 years later if I didn’t have the limiting beliefs that I have now? What would yours be like?
- What if I became incredibly focused and persistent?
- Think about the income, relationships, personal health, and career. What will they be like if you had healthy beliefs instead of unhealthy ones?
If you allow yourself to see a little preview of what your life would be like with or without your limiting beliefs, then you will be more in tuned with the consequences and results of what your everyday attitudes and actions will have in your future.
Conclusion
That is where I basically get my motivation from. Now you know my secret, well it isn’t exactly a secret because this method has been around for quite a while now.
- What this method does is that it basically brings you to a state of imagined misery that you will fear so much that it will cause you to take desperate action to avoid it.
- It also takes you to a state of imagined success, so you will feel motivated and inspired to achieve that stage of life.
With both primary drives of motivation intact and working towards the same goal – a healthy lifestyle, you can tap into the potential power that resides within all of us.
I’ll leave it at that, I’m going to go and imagine my miserable life 20 years from now and do something about it. 
Live the misery long enough and you’ll feel desperate enough to take action, live the success and you’ll feel inspired to prosper.
Gosh I’m so clever…not really, but I’d like to feel like it… 
Steven
Oh Mr. Hoot/Philosopher/StickMan,
Arent you the clever one???All smart and funny all at the same time
I love how you have used fear as a motivator. It is indeed working for you.
BUt you know..it might not work for everyone. The people who are actually clinically depressed…if they visualize this …they will get even more into their state of depression…more so because they love to be in that state of self pity.
So for them..i ask them to visualize a happy future…of what they would want..and it works.
I guess I am more for “happiness” as the motivator.
But, on a more personal level…your Fear Factor visualization will work for me. And many of those lazy bum chums around for sure
p.s. where are your stick men???Why havent they shown up inmy email as yet???
Zeenat{Positive Provocations}´s last blog ..Multiple Personality By Choice!
Hey Zeenat!
Yes I am awesome I know lol (jk)
Thank you for the compliment on fear as a motivator, I greatly appreciate it.
I know what you mean with depressed patients Zeenat. I have experience with that myself. I knew that when I was depressed all I ever saw was a dim future. And the thing that made me depressed is that I bought into my depressing future, I believed that everything was pointless and hopeless. So yeah, you are absolutely right on that, because when a depressed person who already believes their future is hopeless and that it is inevitable, visualizing how their future would suck with their current limiting beliefs would only bring them further down.
So…this method is only for people who have a normal perception on their future lol (optimism)
I hope my fear factor visualization will work for you! Or else my stick men will do something about it (that is your dim future lol)
I am currently working on the comic right now Zeenat, I will send them to you later…I hope you get them
Steven
Mate, I am loving the cartoons. Keep them up my friend, great work.
Hey Jonny,
thanks for the compliment on the cartoons. I am sure they are now all jumping for JOY.
Appreciate it that you visited my blog, hope you will enjoy your stay more in the future
Steven
Hey Steven,
I have contrary thoughts on motivating yourself using fear. I think it can work in a lot of cases, but sometimes it can backfire, because it creates the reaction of withdrawal instead of motivation. I know it sometimes does this for me. Or maybe I just didn’t go far enough with scarring myself
.
Eduard
Ideas With A Kick´s last blog ..Q: How do I look? A: Like everybody else
Hey Eduard, appreciate the commenting
I hear you on the reaction of withdrawal. I mentioned that on the post because that is when someone actually starts to believe that their alternate future could be inevitable, therefore “de-motivating” them.
However, when I realized this, I added the term “clarity”. Clarity provides us with power and it helps us direct our energy into knowing exactly what we want and don’t want, instead of getting stuck in one place and potentially believing into a negative illusion.
Steven
Steven,
Love the progress you’re making here with your blog. I like what you’ve done here and it reminds me a bit of Tony Robbins Dickens pattern. There’s no doubt that all of these things can be good for us and used the right way fear can push us forward.
Srinivas Rao´s last blog ..A little dose of California Happiness
Hey Srinivas, thank you very much for the compliment on the progress.
I am putting my mind on a few goals that will improve my blog. Because just as my post mentions above, I would hate to live a life of inactivity and non-involvement.
And you are right, I’ve heard of the Dickens pattern, it is very similar to this. However, I do suggest people to find clarity first, as this idea would backfire and sometimes make people actually buy into their miserable imagined future. With clarity, they understand exactly what they want, therefore exactly what they want to avoid. Once they have that, this method works great.
Steven
Fear can work, repulsion too, but not as good as happiness and certainly not as a sole/main focus (as Zeenat above stresses).
The steps you wrote down are pretty awesome, Steven. I’d like to note from my own experience that daydreaming shouldn’t be the only guide to one’s future. Instead one should try as many techniques that they think will help; writing the future out, setting goals or good habits, dream/vision boards, etc.
Keeping goal dates and reviewing journals/completed lists will help one get back on track when they’re feeling like they haven’t made much progress.
Hey Eirien thanks for the comment,
I agree with you with the points that you stressed on. It is definitely helpful to take some actions and write down the goals (it is a very helpful method).
But in this post I am solely writing about the motivation that people should have to actually even make them want to improve their lifestyle (such as taking action and writing down their goals).
Also, I know what you mean with how happiness can be a good factor too, however, fear IS a greater drive of motivation of behaviors in our daily lives. For example, most people would want to protect their money from being stolen, rather than actually wanting to earn more money, this is because their fear of pain is a greater motivator for their actions and thoughts.
However, I do understand what you mean with happiness, and I do agree with you on how it can backfire. So I appreciate your honest input
, as this is the input I need to improve my blogitty blog.
Steven
stevenzdf says: “For example, most people would want to protect their money from being stolen, rather than actually wanting to earn more money, this is because their fear of pain is a greater motivator for their actions and thoughts.”
Hm, that is a good example. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend all that time (and emotion) having to rebuild when I could more easily defend. But then it leads to this question,
“Should I take the risk and lose what I’ve already got?”
I guess it’s up to the individual and their current situation. One could stay near the ‘bottom’; around the worst they can be at. Or, they can take the risks for something better; lose a little to gain a lot.
If I was at the bottom point in my life I’d certainly use the fear to motivate me upwards. With that said, I guess it’s possible to redefine one’s ‘lowest points’ in different aspects of one’s life to keep motivation going.
Yea I agree. Different things work for different individuals.
When you are at the bottom of your life, and there really isn’t much to lose, it would be useful to visualize on what you want from life instead of what really scares you. Because once you are at the bottom, visualizing what worst case scenarios if more of a reminder than a scare.
For people whose lives have more space to be worse, could use the possibility of it getting worse as a reason to avoid it. And since fear is a great motivator as it generates desperation for getting out of crappy situations, it is a useful tactic.
But you are right with what you said about positive visualizations and happiness. It would be more useful for people who are depressed just as Zeenat stated.
Thank you for your dedicated feedback, Eirien I appreciate it.
Steven
You have shared a very important wisdom here. Fear is definitely a powerful motivator once we know how to use it, and you have finely explained it here.
I’m living on your message because I fear to live a life of nothing.
Hey Walter thanks for the visit and comment here, it is greatly appreciated!
And yes, fear the life of nothing and you will feel the great motivation to live the life of everything! >:D
Steven
Hey Steven.
These methods would do well for myself. I use them at times, but could use them more often. We do our best when we have reality right in our face, as opposed to left for future handling, which leads to even bigger realities in our face.
Visualizing a situation you don’t want sounds like a good way to keep postponement from occurring, as you see exactly what will be coming.
Cool use of colors near the end as well.
Armen Shirvanian´s last blog ..Motivation Related To Production
Hey Armen,
I know what you mean with the reality. I agree with you, we need to know our present situations in life, and sometimes if things are doing so well…then they really just aren’t doing so well. That is when we need to step up face reality in the face and do something about our problems. Instead of fantasizing about what good things could happen in the future.
Thank you for the comment Armen,
Steven
Steven – I heard about you from Zeenat and she was so right! I laughed all the way through this post and yet, I also got it.
I adore people who can help me learn something while laughing as I do it. Your cartoons are fabulous!!
Thanks and I will be back:~)
Sara´s last blog ..The Journey Begins: Part Two
Hey Sara!
Thank you so much for visiting my blog
I’m glad that this post made you chuckle and understand at the same time. *SUCCESS!* 
Anyways, I welcome you anytime on my blog, and I hope I will make you laugh more during the future with my silly comics!
Steven
Hi Steven,
Again, love the comics, Steven.
As a habit, I try not to visualize things I don’t want, only good things. But, I can’t say that many of my decisions in life were just based on pain avoidance.
I think you just have to go with whatever works to stay on this side of the dirt.
I keep it simple.
Thanks for this!
~xo
Lori´s last blog ..Proof: Extraterrestrial Life Exists
Hey Lori!
I know what you mean with visualizing good things. I do that too. It’s just that sometimes desperation out of bad habits and situations may just be the stronger cure than positive thinking. But I get what you mean, different things work for different people!
Good to see you here again.
Simple is good…less is more! xD
Steven
Hey Steven,
I thought I should clarify and tell you I made a dreaded typo!
It’s important I correct it because it changed the whole meaning of my sentence! I meant, “But, I can say (admit) that many of my decisions in life were just based on pain avoidance.”
So, I’m basically agreeing with you. Again, while I don’t purposely try to visualize bad outcomes, I DEFINITELY make many decisions to get LESS pain in my life. I hope that made sense!
I’m really glad I met you, Steven, you are a force for good!
Lori´s last blog ..Front Porch: Pearl’s Widsom
No problem Lori! lol
I knew you’d agree with me! I’m glad I met you too, you are a force of awesome.
Steven
Steven, I am not a blogger. I got your link from another blog. I have never written to anyone never. However, I just had to tell you that you may have saved my life tonight by giving me a glimpse of hope. For that I thank you very much. Please keep doing what you do, you have a fan for life.
Dawn,
I’m a extremely glad that my post and site has that kind of impact of peoples’ lives. I thank you very much for coming here and reading what I have to say.
And remember whatever it is you are experiencing, it won’t last forever. There is always a way and there is always hope. I can promise you that. I’ve felt there was no hope at one point in my life, and I am very glad that once I got out of it I can share with people from what I’ve learned.
And I am just so happy to see messages like yours, because it means the wish I have for people to be happy is becoming more like a reality now.
Thank you for your response, I hope my posts/site will be more of help later on.
Steven
intersting read, as is the rest of the blog. keep it coming.
check me out at: http://orangepacific.wordpress.com/