What motivates you?

Recently this question has been hovering in my mind like a boomerang. Is motivation something we need only for big and life-changing tasks? The series of questions concerning motivation is a long list. If we think about it, we need motivation for anything and everything we do in our life. 

Bhaktivinoda Thakura, a Hindu philosopher describes four fundamental motivations- Fear, Desire, Duty and Love. If we scrutinize each of our choices, decisions and ambitions, we can see that these four drives everything we do in our life. 

• Fear
  Fear can motivate us to do things. For example, fear of failing an exam may motivate you to study better for your exams and get good results. But the problem with fear is that it is not sustainable. We cannot always rely on the fear of something going wrong to make us perform better. In a long run, this may affect your productivity and efficiency. 

• Desire
  When personal gratification becomes our prime aim, remember that we are motivated by desire. More simply put, desire motivates us saying that success is happiness. When we are motivated by desire, we keep pinning our happiness on external events of life, which are always changing and will always be waiting for happiness. Success, money, and fame are all some kind of an illusion; we are not longing for any of them but for the feeling that we think they will give us. 

• Duty and Love 
  Even though we are at different levels of living life, we all want the same things; happy and meaningful life. True contentment is achieved when we do things with the conviction that our actions are making a change, and our actions are valued and respected. When we love what we do, nothing can stop us from completing that task. When we do things for the sake of doing things, we will find happiness and fulfilment. 

All four, fear, desire, duty and love, are needed for us to work at an optimum level. The key is to understand why you are doing or choosing some things over others. The point is to analyse and understand what are the underlying motives of your actions. It is not for explaining to others or making excuses but to analyse, evaluate and correct yourself to become a better person. 

Please comment your opinions and suggestions in the comment box! 
Thank You for reading!

Reference: Think Like a Monk, Jay Shetty