During the vast majority of the time that humans were evolving, we were motivated to action by strong biological desires like hunger, fear, or sex.
But in modern society, we are generally comfortable. While sex may still be very motivating for people, hunger and fear rarely are feelings that cause us to act.
And I don’t mean: you feel hungry so you go to the refrigerator and grab something to eat.
I mean: you had concerns about your ability to secure food for yourself for the whole year, and that motivates you to work tirelessly, 365 days a year until you die, to do everything you can to secure food.
Nearly all of your actions were based around just a few basic needs.
And we simply don’t have that anymore. You barely have to do anything to survive and meet those needs.
So now we’re operating on a completely alien system of motivation. We’re forced to think about what we really want in life and make complicated decisions about how to meet long-term goals.
And, more to my original thought and point of this article: in the short term, there is almost nothing motivating you to action.
I have no intense biological needs that are in danger of not being met anytime soon.
So how exactly do I motivate myself to do… Anything?
Animals behave almost entirely on instinct and in response to their needs. Everything is very low-level and they basically do what feels right at every given moment.
But for us humans, we’ve created a world in which almost every action we take has to be guided by higher-level thinking that’s generally not tied to basic needs like food and safety.
To some degree, it’s wholly unnatural.
Sure, we do use stand-ins for our basic needs and let those motivate us. For example, sex appeal is used to sell everything from cars to vacations to kitchen appliances.
You can motivate people at a fundamental, animalistic level by tapping into their biological desire for sex. But of course you’re not giving them sex, you’re selling them a product.
Obviously money tends to be pretty motivating to people, too. And I think it tends to be a stand-in for basically all biological needs: hunger, safety, sex, shelter, everything.
It’s almost an avatar of our base needs that have guided our actions for millions of years. We’ve replaced those needs with a need for money.
While that’s motivating, I’m not sure it’s as motivating as a true need for food, for example.
And so it makes sense that for most people, once they’ve reached a level of stability and comfort in their lives, they essentially stop trying at anything.
Why would they? Our evolution hasn’t prepared us for that type of situation. Once you’re there, there is no script. You are not biologically motivated to do anything else.
And so they do nothing.
Obviously I could get deep into philosophy and psychology here, and there’s not going to be any concrete takeaways.
But I almost think that you have to somehow rewire your brain and treat your goals like needs, in the same way that food would be to a nomadic hunter-gatherer 2 million years ago.
I have noticed that compared to most people around my age, my level of motivation to improve and my general ambition and effort in accordance with that ambition is very high. And it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why that is.
If I could figure out the reason, maybe I could double-down on it and really supercharge it. Obviously I don’t want to become anxious, restless, or unsatisfied with my life, but I do want to maximize my motivation and energy which I can put towards advancing my goals.
I think I’m just going to have to keep pondering that until I come up with a satisfactory answer. Right now I’m not sure.
I remember hearing a viral clip from a motivational speaker who basically said, “once you want to be successful as much as you want to breath when held underwater, you will be successful.”
Of course, you can’t necessarily just will your way into it. Desire is based on a lot of things and I’m not sure you can just decide to want something to that level.
Or maybe you can? I’m starting to question the results of most large-scale studies and data which seem to universally say things like that dieting isn’t effective, most people can’t lose weight, people can’t really develop new habits, change is almost impossible.
Because while those may all be true for MOST people, they certainly aren’t true for everyone. And most people basically do nothing, so… Why would I be following advice intended for “most people”?
I might have to write about this tomorrow.
The idea that money is a stand-in for our biological needs is actually pretty interesting. This would provide a lens through which to view the fact that people tend to view money as the solution to all their problems.