List Of Different Motivation

Motivation Series Part 1: Meaning and Purpose 

Human beings need meaning in their life. Our brain has a meaning instinct where it gives justification and reasons why we should do something. People generally dislike doing things that goes against their purpose. They want to be the heroes and heroines of their life journey. A life without meaning and purpose is not worth living. A life with meaning and purpose is a fruitful life.

Motivation Series Part 2: What is motivation and why it matters? 

Motivation in the brain is scientifically understood as the process that energizes, directs, and sustains goal-oriented behavior, often defined as the energizing of behavior in pursuit of a goal. Motivation is rooted in the brain's reward system, primarily the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. Dopamine is the primary neurotransmitter. It doesn't just produce pleasure ("liking") but drives "wanting"—the motivational pull toward rewards—and facilitates learning from reward prediction errors (discrepancies between expected and actual outcomes). People naturally chase after activities, goals and people that give them motivation.

Motivation Series 3: Progress And Accomplishment.

Seeing one's progress is very important in continuing a good habit or achieve career goals. The progress has to be tangible, measurable and achievable. Instant feedback loops that updates the progress create the best outcomes. The progress goals are best superimposed on top of each other in short term, medium term and long term. Intermittent goals superimposed on top of gradual goals. This is why video games, social medai and gambling apps are so motivating. They design progress systems this way.

Motivation Series 4: Freedom and Autonomy

The animal nervous system is built for autonomous movement. There is an innate need for animals to have freedom to move within ones environment. With humans the same need exist and expanded with our intelligence. We have a strong desire to have freedom to make choices no matter how small or big. Even if the choice is illusory or inconsequential, people still strives for autonomy. If a person feels caged in, they will eventually snap and escape to restore autonomy. This is true of parental control, societal control, corporate control and any abusive controls on ones autonomy.

Motivation Series 5: Creativity and Openness to Experience

There is a personality dimension called openness to experience. Those who are high in openness to experience are naturally open to new and diverse ideas. They like to engage in creative and intellectual activities. They are easily bored by cliche familiar ideas. Creativity is a strong motivator for these people, they feel physically and mentally sick if they are not creating something new and creative. 

Those who are low in openness to experience like to stick to one familiar idea, structure or belief system. They will devote their time into them. But creativity and novelty scares them. They dont want to rock the boat when its going well for them. They will cling onto their beliefs even if they are causing harm just because it is familiar.

Motivation Series 6: Money 

Why do people chase after money? Children dont understand the value of money intuitively. It has to be taught. Each unit of money is a cultural promise to convert to anything we desire: food, safety, repair, services, products, trips etc. People chase after money because it improves their living standards and fulfill their desires. The more money the better but only up to a point. Sometimes more money comes with less freedom, less time, more stress due to increasing responsibility and pressure from high paying jobs. In this case, money becomes a detriment to ones own life.

Motivatio Series 7: Money part 2 

Rich people see money very differently than a normal person. A normal person only have two modes of money: earning and spending. Where a rich person sees money like a circular flow and reservoirs. They have investments, assets, cash, debts, they capture the value of money and multiply it many times. They think in scale, they deal with millions of pounds rather than ten pounds. A rich person has less motivations for money because it is a part of their life. They value freedom, social connections, family relationships, exploration more than money.

Motivation Series 8: Ownership

Whoever said 'you will own nothing and you will be happy' is an idiot. Increasingly we are losing ownership of the things we value. Subscription services and rent dominate our lives. On the contrary people put more value and care into something they own. They attach sentimental value and they feel safer in the environment that they own. Owning things we value brings more fulfilment in life than renting it. It can also serve as goals to accomplish. For example owning a home is a goal many people strive for because it is inherently valuable in the mind.

Motivation Series 9: Safety and Security 

Safety is one of the fundamental needs for a human being. Being hyper vigilant for danger all the time is exhausting. So it is natural to crave for a sanctuary where you will feel safe, secure and at peace. People are willing to trade their freedom, money and other benefits if they can get more security in their life. There are a small minority who live life on the edge and have no need for safety. Danger is their currency of excitement.

Motivation Series 10: Nurturing 

Nurturing is a strong desire to take care of someone vulnerable like a baby, a pet, a sick person etc and also being hospitable in general. People who are high in nurturing motivation want to make sure everyone in their life is fed, happy and secure. They predict the needs of others and prepare ahead of time. Nurturing is perceived as a feminine value because women are more likely to have it and they have to take care of children if they become mothers. Men can be nurturing too but they show it in a different protective way. There are also some women who are not nurturing at all.

Motivation Series 11: Family

Why is family important and some people will do anything for their family? Human beings are born premature unlike other animals. Because of this vulnerability window, we are dependent on other adults namely our blood relatives to survive. So the bond shared between family members is intense and deep. It cannot be substituted with friendship because it is a qualitatively different bond. Motivation to provide for ones family, motivation to please your family, motivation to help your family thrive will push people to their limits. When a person has loving quality relationships with family members, it is one of the greatest gifts of life

Motivation Series 12: Friendship

Why do people care a lot of their friendships? Why do people seek out meaningful friendships?  

Friendships are the antidote to loneliness. Children as young as 3  form friendships with other kids, it is a marker of good psychological health when they can form friendships. Most friendships are circumstancial, they are your school friends, uni friends or work friends. Proximity matters in creating new friendships. 

But there is an upper echelon of friendships called best friends in which they are treated like family and they share common interests, common life goals or philosophy, they simply enjoy being in each others company for hours or days at a time. Best friends form due to personality chemistry and sheer amount of shared history and memories. Humans are motivated to seek out these deep friendships.

Motivation Series 13: Romantic Love

Why do romantic love grip us when we least expect it? Why is it so intense and out of control. 

Many philosophers, artists and musicians of the ages have described the beautiful state of romantic love. When a person is in mutual love, they are drowning in a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters. They cant stop thinking of the person they love, they want to express their love in different ways via love languages. They want to spend time with them, be affectionate with them, fulfill their needs, be their portal to the pleasures of the world. Those who are in love will quickly change all of their life goals and incorporate that special person into their life. The evolutionary reason why romantic love exists is to create a strong bond that is necessary to raise healthy children and stick together to face challenges in life.

Motivation Series 14: Tribalism

Why do humans have the tribal instinct? What does that mean for you? Humans have a deep desire to belong. It is one of our fundamental needs. Belonging to a place, a culture, a family, a football team or a tribe of like minded individuals is highly important to us. In the brain, oxytocin activates when we are with people whom we feel a sense of belonging. We will adopt certain behaviours of a group that we want to belong. We also adopt their language, their symbols, their colours etc. It becomes part of our identity because we gain status in the group. We also feel a lot of anxiety if we are kicked out of a group that we previously felt belonging. So we will fight our hardest to keep our membership and participate in punishing others who goes against the group. This tribal instinct is older than humanity itself.

Motivation Series 15: Extraverts vs Introverts

There is a personality dimension called extraversion which is well known in the mainstream culture. People who are extraverted get more enjoyment from seeking out new social interactions, new friendships. They seek out new sensory sensations and higher energy environments like parties, networking etc. This is because they have higher sensitivity to dopamine. It takes them longer for them to get tired of social interactions. 

Introverts on the other hand get overwhelmed by too much external stimuli. They prefer quality one to one friendships. They seek out low stimulation activities like reading, gardening or solo artistic activities. Even if they dont talk as much, they can be surprisingly thoughtful. Also It takes them a lot of mental preparations to enter a high energy social environment. They have lower social motivations in general compared to extraverts. Of course most people are somewhere in between. It is rare to be extreme on both ends.

Motivation Series 16: Mentoring 

Unlike other life forms, humans cannot reliably transmit a lifelong of experiences and knowledge in DNA. So with every new generation, they have to relearn the pains of their forefatheres and foremothers. As a result, humans have invented cultural transmission of ideas via teaching.  

There is a unique pleasure associated with teaching. Once you have accumulated enough knowledge, wisdom or specialized skills, teaching these to someone young and seeing their growth can be very satisfying. Seeing their curiosity and even their naive optimism can revitalize how you view your knowledge. Also you crystallize your knowledge through the process of teaching. Being able to make someone understand a complex idea in a simple way can deepen ones own understanding too. Being a good role model for your students, children or mentees can be a meaningful endeavour.

Motivation Series 17: Altruism 

Helping others in need without asking for anything in return is often seen as a virtue. Many heroic stories have the elements of altruism and they can be inspiring. Being charitable, being kind, being empathetic to someones pain and struggle are associated with morally good personality trait. When you help someone with genuine care, you feel a pleasurable warmth afterwards. This is due to the hormones responding to your deed. 

However there can be a dark side to altruism. There are some who constantly seek out altruistic activist behaviours as a performance to gain status in a group. They use righteous anger to mask their motives. They often neglect their life responsbilities and immerse themselves in the foreign conflicts. This is not psychologically healthy either. Balance of lifes priorities are very important to maintain mental stability.

Motivation Series 18: Agreeableness 

Agreeableness is one of the major personality traits. Those who are agreeable tend to be nicer, values harmony of the group, modest, care about the needs of others, good teammates. They prefer cooperation rather than competition. They go along with a decision if everyone agrees to it. Eventually being too agreeable will lead to burnout. 

However the disagreeable people tend to be self centered, confident, independent and highly competitive. They are not afraid to go against the grain and forge their own path. They dont care about hurting feelings if it means getting what they want. However it would be a mistake to treat them as bad people unless they do nasty or criminal behaviours constantly. 

Interestingly women tend to score highly on agreeableness and men on disagreeableness. Older individuals tend to be more agreeable than the youth. These are group differences, individuals are placed on a spectrum.

Motivation Series 19:  Trading 

Why do people exchange things and services? Why do people buy and sell thing? 

Humans have many needs and wants but there is not enough lfietime to learn every expertise, to learn to produce everything we need. So to overcome this mortal limitation, we naturally seek to barter with other people for things we want in exchange for things and services we can produce. Money was invented to make the trading transaction smoother rather than having to memorize the value of every item. 

Mutual reciprocity is an ancient motivation. When the small cleaner fish clean the mouth of bigger fish predators, they receive tolerance and protection in exchange for clean teeth. Primates understand the concept of reciprocal exchange and also they get angry if the exchange was unfair.

What about yourself? Do you enjoy trading with others?

Motivation Series 20: Scarcity

Have you ever felt the need to panic buy and hoard during a natural disaster or the pandemic? There is a reason for that.

For most of our evolutionary history, we lived side by side with scarcity. 

Scarcity of food, water and other necessicities. Periods of famine has wiped out many human groups in the past. So the motivation of scarcity when activated by external threats such as natural disater, war, famine or diseases, will force our body into conservation mode and our brain into panic mode. We will have this irrational need to acquire and hoard things we think we need to survive for the upcoming challenging period. It can even be something stupid like toilet roll panic buy fiasco. 

If you live in an affluent first world country, you dont often face scarcity in daily life. However companies who understand the psychology of scarcity will create artificial scarcity of their products to trick the buyer into thinking that if they dont get this valuable product now, they will never get it again. 

What about you? Have you ever felt the need to panic buy and hoard, and when did it activate for you?

Motivation Series 21: Status

Why do people strive for higher status? Why do they participate in rat race status games? There is a reason for that. 

Since humans are social animals that live in big groups, some individuals who are stronger, smarter, more beautiful and more competent gain status. But the competition is fierce. Once you gain high status, you gain access to resources, acess to higher quality mates and most importantly you gain respect and power. In the brain higher status in a hierarchy is linked to high serotonin activations where you feel confident and at ease, while low status is linked to high activations cortisol hormone where you feel stressed, irritable and desperate. 

There are multiple status games people play. 

Dominance game where people use their strength and violence to subjugate others. 

Virtue game where people use signals of good moral character to gain status

Competence game where people use signals of knowledge and high level of skills in their work to gain status. 

Beauty game where people use signals of attractiveness on the face and body by using enhancements to gain status

Birth game where people who are born into high status families automatically gain status. So there is a drive to marry into high status. What about yourself? Which status game do you participate in?

Motivation Series 22: Luxury and Status Symbols

Why do people chase after status symbols? Why do they willing to pay large amounts of money to acqurie them? 

Once a person gains status, they have a need to display it to their peers and the world. A status symbol could be any object but it is easily recognized by others in the group. If you are a military general, you would show off your medals. If you are a CEO, you would show off your tailor made suits, a sports car and an entourage of subordinates. If you are a celebrity, you would show off your fashion and accessories. You become a trendsetter. If you are a king you would show off your royal symbols like a crown and a scepter etc. Those are lower in status would see the status symbols and want to emulate them to gain some level of status in their local groups. So they purchase luxury goods and services to acquire the feeling of high status temporarily. It can be highly motivating and addictive. 

Do you purchase status symbols to show it off to your friends?

Motivation Series 23: Invisible Essences 

Have you ever wondered why thousands of people would queue up to get a signature of their favourite artist? Or why authentic art pieces were valued more than fake ones? Theres a reason for that. 

Our brains assume the presence of hidden essences in the world like people, objects and events have a hidden soul, hidden meaning or quality that cannot be measured. This is a product of our collective imagination and feels very real even though objectively I would argue these essences dont really exist. It is a part of our social reality, not objective reality. 

This makes sense why people want to get a signature from their favourite artists, atheletes or heroes. They want to be exposed to their essences. Why people seek out healing touch from religious figures like the pope. Why people pay more for authentic art pieces that is touched by the original artist rather than perfect fabrications. Why children feel attached to their favourite toys rather than a new one that looks the same etc. 

On the flip side, people avoid objects that are touched by bad people like serial killers. They avoid people whom they believe to be possessed by the devil. They avoid objects that is touched by lower status individuals etc. 

Have you ever chased after hidden essences?

Motivation Series 24: Time Pressure 

Have you ever felt you are always short on time or time is running out. Your life is passing by so fast that you havent lived enough? There is a reason for that. 

Humans are mortal beings so there is an intrinsic understanding that we have limited time to live on this earth. Time is the ultimate form of scarcity. No matter how much resources one have, everyone has only 24 hours and on average 80 years of lifespan to spare. All of our social systems are designed to adapt to this reality. Our minds and body go through different stages of growth. At each stage we are expected to fulfill certain culturally enforced criterias otherwise we felt like we have wasted our time. 

In the brain, our sense of time is linked to how much attention we pay to a task and our memories of the past. When we are enjoying engaging with the tasks, if there is novelty and excitement, you feel like you have lived more while monotonous routine tasks, boring conversations sap us of our time and energy. This is the holiday paradox. The sense of time urgency kicks in when monotony is overpowering the engagement and novelty in your life. Or the appropriate goals of your life stage havent been fulfilled yet. Companies utilize the time urgency to make us purchase immediately. Like discounts, limited time products etc. What about you? Do you feel like you are utilizing your time effectively?

Motivation Series 25: Curiosity 

Are you curious person? Do you have a wide array of interests? There is a reason for that. Curiosity is one of fundamental motivation that humans have. Children are naturally curious of everything in the world. They will use all of their senses to experiment the objects in the environment. This is because we are generalist feeders. Specialized feeders like a panda is quite happy on one spot if he has access to a bamboo. Generalist feeders like humans have to be curious to find a wide variety of plants and animals to eat. Because our brains got expanded, this curiosity has expanded to aesthetic and intellectual domains. Once the safety and survival needs are met, a person will feel comfortable to be curious again. They are curious to learn about new knowledge, new cultures, new music, new food etc. There is a dopamine response associated with being curious and being rewarded for that curiosity when you discover something beautiful or tasty. What about yourself? Are you naturally a curious person?

Motivation Series 26: Exploration 

Do you enjoy exploring new places and new frontiers? Do you find it intrinsically exciting? There is a reason for that. 

Human beings are natural explorers. Our species history proved it. We were evolved on the african plains for millions of years and due to climatic changes we are forced to explore other continents. As we conquer the lands bit by bit, new cultures and rituals were developed to adapt to new environments. This process of global migration took over a hundred thousand years. Due to this history, our brains are wired to enjoy exploring the frontiers. New locations, new scenaries, new delights bring a lot of pleasure and meaning. There is an inherent joy in exploring and mapping new spatial environments. Nowadays, most of the globe has been discovered so we are exploring the abstract frontiers in technology, knowledge, space exploration, spirituality etc. After the exploration phase, when you come back home, you feel energized, feel like a new person. You can use the knowledge of the frontiers to improve your own environment. 

Do you enjoy exploring new places and new frontiers?

Motivation Series 27: Novelty Seeking and Early Adopters

Novelty seeking is a core personality present in all of us. Some have more of it than others. There is a positive valence associated with new stimuli and sensations. And a strong need to avoid boredom. Too much of novelty seeking leads to impulsivity, poor decision making for long term, ADHD like behaviours. 

Early innovators and early adopters have the personality trait of novelty seeking, high openness to experience, high extroversion and low  negative emotions. They have a hunger to seek out new cultural trends, new fashion trends, new restaurants, new technology, new ideas. They transform their novelty seeking into a status competition. Whoever can show off the most new thing gain status and interest from others. They are often the gateway to mainstream adoption of these new trends. 

What about you? Are you an early adopter?

Motivation Series 28: Awe and Mystery

Our existence is a mystery, life is a mystery, the universe is a mystery, is there a purpose to my life, does God exist watching over us? Is there life after death? Even though the frontier of knowledge is making progress day by day, the mysteries of the universe is so vast that we may never know the answers to these questions. 

Awe is a unique emotion that activates when we come across something spatially vast, bigger than an individual human scale of existence. It can be the majestic beauty of a mountain, a canyon, it could be looking at stars and the moon in the nightsky, looking at massive architecture, participating in synchronous group behaviours like music, dance, rituals etc. It is a like a deep spiritual feeling that we are small in comparison to the world followed by a gratitude that we get to experience something beautiful and incredible. 

Spiritually oriented people tend to seek out awe experiences because it feels meaningful and deeply joyful. For average people, awe will surprise them unexpectedly and remind them of the vastness of the universe. 

What about you? Have you experienced moments of awe that make question the deep mysteries of the world?

Motivation Series 29: Fear Part 1 

Do you have strong fears or phobias? Has your fear stopped you from achieving your goals? There is a reason for that. 

Fear is a powerful emotion. It is wired into us by evolution because it is important for our survival. Fear allow us to react to deadly and threatening situation with incredibly swiftness but there is a price to be paid if the fear is prolonged. 

In the brain fear activates entire networks of the amydala, the memory centers, the adrenaline hormonal systems, the frontal cortex to prepare for action. There are three main actions of fear: freezing, fleeing and fighting depending on the situation and the threat level. These are put to the highest priority of motivation, no other motivation matters when fear takes over. 

To overcome fear that is holding you back from doing things, you must face it consciously and with courage. You must slowly approach the situation that you are afraid of in small doses. When you have conquered the small challenge, face the slightly bigger fear. This is how one conquers it. Exposure therapy works because you train your brain to be familiar with the stimulus that was causing the fear before.

Motivation Series 30: Innate vs Learned Fears 

Have you ever wondered why some fears feel instinctive while others are acquired. 

Most fears are learned either through personal experience, observation of someone's fear or being taught to feel certain social fears by cultural education. The truly genetic wired fears are fear of heights, fear of falling, fear of loud noises and fear of death. Little babies respond to these fears with no prior teaching. It is instinctive. There are other fears that are more easily learned like our natural predators for example snakes, giant predators like tigers, bears or insects like spiders. Fear of weapons like sharp objects. Fear of fire. These phobias are harder to treat. 

Most social fears however are mostly learned. Fear of losing reputation, fear of public speaking, fear of embarrasment by doing the wrong thing or saying the wrong thing, fear guns, fear of god or authority. All the motivations we have convered so far has a fear associated with them. Fear of losing freedom, fear of losing progress, fear of leading a meaningless life, fear of being alone etc. Learning to avoid dark crime infested areas out of fear. You should keep certain fears if they save your life. But if it doesnt serve you anymore, these learned fears can be unlearned with courage. 

What social fears do you have strongly in your life? Comment down below

Motivation Series 31: Rage 

In the early days of Facebook, the developers have discovered that an algorithm pushing a certain type of content is increasing engagement a lot more than others. Is it content to make people happy? Is it content that make people jealous? What do you think? 

My name is Ken and I am a neuroscientist. The answer is rage bait content are doing the most engagement. Theres a reason for that.  Anger is an adaptive emotion that activates when there is a threat nearby, when one is challenged to a fight, when one perceive injustice or unfairness, when ones expectation does not match the desired outcome. Anger is a destructive emotion towards the outsider and protectiveness towards the insider. Everyone is aware of maternal mama bear anger when their babies are threatened. Anger can inhibit fear when an animal chooses to fight instead of fleeing. Anger is almost always paired with loss of reasonable control and violent behaviour. 

In the brain, anger is originated in the amygdala and then the prefrontal cortex consciously perceive the reasons for anger. When the conscious control is dampened, feelings of anger multiply. Other brain areas like basal ganglia and hypothalamus prepare the muscles to physical confrontation. 

Every time you were rage baited on the internet. You lost your conscious control to anger and ended up investigating more. What do you think?

Motivation Series 32: Hot and Cold Anger

Do you know there is a difference between cold and hot anger? 

Hot anger is explosive, reactive to a perceived threat, provocation or dissatisfaction. It doesnt last long but it can reactivate again and again. Hot anger tends to shut down the rational part of the brain. You can no longer think straight and cannot be reasoned with. It is counter productive in the world of high performance. 

Cold Anger is different. The emotional anger has activated but there is no explosive outburst. The rational brain is fully active and it plans to destroy whatever is causing the anger. Its sole objective is to win and dominate. Certain personality traits like psychopathy find it easier to go into cold  anger but you can learn to use it too. World class athletes are taught to tap into the power of cold anger because it allows to fully focused on destroying the opponent. 

What about yourself? Do you use cold anger to win over your enemies? Or hot anger to intimidate them.

Motivation Series 33: Revenge and Justice 

Do you know that revenge is one of the long lasting motivation of the human species? 

People hold grudges, some for decades. When a person feel a grievance when someone has wronged them, betrayed them, humiliated them, disrespected them, hurt their loved ones, they will hold a grudge due to the social pain experienced from the grievance. And then their mind starts to fantasize how to take revenge. The pleasure one feels to imagine and plan for revenge mask the pain with pleasure. Many of the violent crimes and atrocities humans commit can attributed to this motivation alone. Some groups of people can be locked in a series of revenge which leads to unending wars. 

In the same way, when a person commits a violent act, everyone in the comminity feel the person should be punished as justice for the victims. The scale has to be balanced. It is pleasurable to see the guilty punished. If there are no judicial system, justice will carried out by vigilantes and ad hoc basis. Its usually guilty until proven innocent. This is why civilized societies have developed complex judicial systems to outsource the motivation of justice with reason, evidence and the assumptiom of innocence. Justice is a responsibility and a heavy burden for an individual to carry out. 

To combat the feeling of revenge, the best way is to reroute this feeling to productive ends to improve onself. Or to forgive the person who have wronged you. Or to believe that karma exists and the universe will punish them eventually.

Motivation Series 34: Legacy and Preservation 

Have you ever wondered why humans put great effort in preserving for future generations? There is a reason for that. 

When a person reaches old age, be diagonosed with a terminal illness or faced death directly, they start to reprioritize their motivations. When they realize that a human life is short, they will start to put effort into preserving their legacy for their children and future generations. It is the only way to give meaning to their life. In a way some parts of their life lived on in the legacy. 

What is being preserved varies. It could be money, assets, collection of art and books, farms, knowledge, memories, letters, stories, personal data etc. There are legal professions trained to handle a person's will and inheritance. They act as an agent for them after their death. 

Because of this instinct to preserve, we get to see a glimpse of the past through art, artifacts and messages. In ancient societies like ancient egypt, vast amount of labour is dedicated to build pyramids and monuments to preserve the legacy of a king and the noblemen. These societies were obsessed with death and immortality. In the modern world where youth and life are celebrated more than death, the instinct to preserve does not disappear. 

What about you? Have you ever handled your family member's will? Please share your stories down below

Motivation Series 35: Boredom and the Stimulus Struggle

Have you ever wondered why people create problems for themselves or feel restless? They cant be at peace like a buddhist monk. There is a reason for that. 

Boredom is one of the greatest sins of the modern times. The reason why boredom exists as an emotion is because our human evolutionary past. Since we were evolved as hunters and gatherers, our actions were driven by our immediate needs of hunger and thirst. So our nervous systems are evolved to be highly active to push us to hunt and explore. This brain architectute cannot sit still, it feels restless where there is no stimulation. Boredom and the stimulus struggle is born. 

When a person is bored, they have to seek out chaos and excitement. They achieve it through watching fiction stories full of drama and action. They achieve it through seeking out high stimulating and thrilling environments through going to concerts, clubs, solving puzzles or challenges or doing extreme sports. They achieve it by deliberately causing problems in their personal lives like cheating their spouse or deliberately making someone mad. 

Or they seek out subtitutes that will give similar social or pleasurable stimulations. It could be certain objects or digital stimulation. 

Or they overreact to mild normal annoyances in everyday life. Making a mountain out of a molehill, they fullfil the stimulus struggle. 

Or if the environment is too stimulating, they shut down completely and avoid everyone. People describe it as their social battery running out. They practise familiar routine actions to bring balance to the environment. 

This stimulus struggle of the monkey brain is eternal. Some religions like Buddhism or Taoism have tried to combat against it with meditation rituals and mindset changes. It is a struggle even for the most experienced monks.

Motivation Series 36: Panic and Separation Anxiety 

Do you know that panic system is separate from rage and fear in the brain? 

Panic is an intense, sudden surge of negative arousal often accompanied by physical symptoms (racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness, sense of impending doom). It can arise from external threats or, especially in panic disorder, from interoceptive (internal bodily) signals. It is separate from fear and rage. 

Panic system is separation anxiety seen in mammalian biology. When a cub is separated from its parental figure, it will show panic and produce a loud cry and search for its parent. The cry will inevitably alert the parent or nearby adults to comfort it. If the cub is reunited with its parent, it will be overjoyed. If it is not united panic will go towards despair and grief. If the separation is persistent and happens often, it can develop insecure attachment styles. 

Humans display this panic when feeling lonely, being separated from parents or romantic lovers. Then the person will seek out the reunion. If it is impossible to reunite, a panic attack can ensue which will feel like dying. If the person have experienced panic often in their younger years, they will develop similar patterns when they fall in love. Causing anxious or avoidant attachment styles. 

Have you ever experienced panic or separation anxiety?

Motivation Series 37: Grief 

Do you know grief is a powerful emotion capable changing a person and shifts their life priorities? 

Grief is the emotional, cognitive, and physiological response to the loss of an attachment bond. It typically begins with a “protest” phase (yearning, searching, distress vocalizations or crying) that can feel panic-like, followed by a “despair” phase of withdrawal and low motivation if reunion does not occur. Grief and panic systems are intricately linked in the brain. Panic transforms into grief when the attachment bond cannot be recovered. 

Grief can be activated in various circumstances. 

The most common one is death of a loved one. 

Death of popular figures you admire although it is less intense than the grief for a loved one. 

An emotional breakup between romantic lovers or even family feuds can cause trenmendous mental pain for a long time. 

Death of a beloved pet can be just as intense especially dogs and cats. The bonds of smart animals like dogs are stronger than rodents or lizards so the grief is stronger. 

Grief for your past self or loss of innocence when facing malevolence has also been documented. The realization you can never live in bliss and innocence when there are evil people who hurt you is a form of grief. 

Loss of cultural treasures that are tied to the social fabric of a people can also induce grief. 

Yes it is possible to form an attachment with an object and losing it can induce grief.

What about you? Which form of grief have you been affected by?

Motivation Series 38: Stages of Grief

Have you heard of the 5 stages of grief? These are 5 different strong emotions associated with grief. They are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This is a model created in the psychiatrist field and became mainstream culture. 

In truth, the brain goes through a chaotic array of strong emotions when faced with grief. Every day and moment is different It is not a linear sequence. Some people grief alone. Some people need others support during grief. Some build a project in the name of their deceased loved one. If the loss was due to a violent crime, there will also be feelings of revenge. Planning for revenge becomes their way of coping with grief. Or some manage to forgive. 

Grief is also a process of rebuilding one's life after a loss. If the rebuilding process does not take place, the person may never recover from it. Grief shocks the system of expectation in the brain to not take your loved ones for granted and value your life since it will end one day. People change permanently after the grief process. 

How about you? What emotions did you go through during grief?

Motivation Series 39: Sunk Cost Fallacy

Have you ever finished a bad book? Or forced yourself though a terrible movie? Or try to finish a degree you no longer care? Stay with partners you no longer love? This is called Sunk Cost Fallacy. 

The sunk cost fallacy is continuing to invest time, money, effort, or other resources in a failing endeavor because of irrecoverable past investments. It is a false belief that you would have wasted your past investment and continue to waste your future investments. Why does it exist? 

In the mammalian world, we have observed elephants in africa walking thousands of miles to find water. We see predators exploring for many hours in search of a meal. In humans we have to take care of the young who are very vulnerable. Giving up halfway though means the child will die. Parents who had sunk cost fallacy continue to invest in their children while those who dont abandoned their children. So the bias survived. 

The problem comes when one is too stubborn to quit a failing business or a project. Continuing to sink additional resources will only add on the losses. So the best business savy people have the flexibility to switch and chase new opportunities. Knowing when to quit is an art form. It is also useful in personal life when managing friendships and relationships.

Motivation Series 40: Ludic Instinct/Playfulness

Have you ever wondered why children and young animals play? What functional use is there in playing? 

Play is a primary, evolutionarily conserved biological drive rooted in specific brain circuits, neurochemistry, and developmental processes, especially prominent in mammals.

It is not merely learned or cultural; it arises from innate neural systems that motivate engagement with the environment in ways that feel rewarding. These systems appear early in development, peak in juveniles, and decline with age in many species. 

Play is one of seven primary emotional systems (alongside seeking, fear, rage, lust, care, and panic/grief) that are pre-wired in the midbrain and present at birth. These play circuits, when activated by playful stimuli (a ball, a playmate, novelty), generate an urge to engage. Signals from midbrain play circuits project to the cortex and cerebellum, helping wire the brain through repeated activation. 

All intelligent animals play. Even birds do. Play is evolved as a mechanism to exercise the movement capabilities of the animal as well as motivate curiosity and forming bonds with others. In human children, play is essential to their growth. They are often restless and they need to play physically and mentally with toys. They learn essential implicit social rules and fairness from playing. Children who have played well turn out to become well adjusted adults. Children that couldnt play is awkward in their movements and social interactions. 

What about you? Tell us more about memories of playing when you were young?

Motivation Series 41: Play Culture 

Have you wondered why serious institutions like the court system or parliament have play like functions and rules? 

Even though the play instinct is biologically wired, in human beings it is expanded to institutions that are the core of civilization. They are structured, rule-bound activities that serve social, competitive, developmental, and institutional functions.

Sports are the most visible and continuous expansion of the biological play drive. They take core elements of mammalian play—locomotor/rotational movement, rough-and-tumble competition, object manipulation, role-switching, and social bonding—and wrap them in explicit, shared rules, specialized spaces (the “magic circle” of the field or court), time limits, and markers of winning and losing.

Evolutionary accounts suggest sports originated partly as low-cost practice for hunting and fighting skills, status competition, courtship display, and coalition assessment. Top athelets are seen as high status individuals and have high mate value. 

Many of the foundational forms of culture: law, warfare, philosophy, ritual grew out of, and still carry, the formal characteristics of play.

A temporary, delimited “world” set apart from ordinary life (the courtroom, the parliamentary chamber, political debates, musical contests). Freely accepted but absolutely binding rules. An element of contest. Tension, uncertainty of outcome, and the possibility of winning or losing. A spirit of fair play that distinguishes legitimate competition from mere force or fraud. 

Cheaters and frauds are punished seriously. They break the rules of play to exploit others and bring back to the cold reality of life. They broke the immersion of culture. When you are in a system, you need to know how the rules of play are organized. So you can thrive as much as possible within the rules.

Motivation Series 42: Chaotic Creativity

Have you wondered where the true genius creativity lies? Why are some people vastly more creative than others? 

Another activity linked with the play instinct is creativity. True creativity is not goal directed. It is spontaneous and a form of discovery, playing with the medium. Whatever creative medium you use, successful creative people play around with the boundaries and rules of the medium. They improvise, They engage with trial and error. This is called Chaotic Creativity.

Chaotic Creativity is linked with certain personality traits like openness to experience, high neuroticism and autism. There is a form of restlessness to their mind which constantly coming up with new images and ideas. They would also dream vividly at night and also daydream for hours. If they are not making something, they feel something is wrong. 

Cultivating chaotic creativity is very difficult because some are born this way. If you are not naturally like this, the best way to do it is to relax your assumptions and fully immerse in the play process of creativity. Follow the journey and you will discover new things never thought possible.

Motivation Series 43:  Linear Creativity

Have you wondered why some tv shows, books or movies follow a certain formula? Like Stephen King novels, superhero, the sitcoms shows are so similar to their past products. 

There is another form of creativity that is more orderly and linear. Once the mad creative people find new ground to exploit, here comes the followers who come up with formulas and structure to fully exploit the new trend, new storytelling method, new mechanics etc. This is called Linear Creativity. These followers have the personality trait to high conscientiousness, high extroversion and low neuroticism.

Linear Creativity has the advantage of quantity over quality. They are appealing to a mass audience because once the rules are understood, the story or the artwork is easy to follow. Linear Creativity innovate small steps at a time. Making small changes with new iterations. 

AI art is linear creativity pushed to its very limits. AI cannot make leaps of knowledge and creativity like humans do, it can only combine whats already out there and iterate. The advantage is it can flood the market with so much slop that truly genius human artworks are outcompeted by AI. But dont worry. As long as humans are alive, we will always appreciate human creativity.

Motivation Series 44: Basic Needs 

Can you guess what are the basic needs of a human being? 

Regardless how wise and intelligent humans have become we can never escape the clutches of biological needs. These are needs of sustainence of the physical body such as oxygen, food, drink, sleep, sex, defecation and shelter from the elements.

There are also needs of the mind such as identity, connection, love, safety, culture, and ideas. People tend to ignore the needs of the mind but its just as important as physical needs. The brain has evolved to withstand ups and downs, positive and negative emotions associated with mental needs. 

The brain organizes all of these needs into a hierarchy in which the most pressing need is pushed to the top of the priority while others are lower down. There is a diminishing return of too much fulfilment of a need. If one need is more than sufficiently fulfilled, other needs become more important. 

It is also organizes into time categories: short term and long term needs. Short term needs are urgent but it doesnt linger for too long. Long term needs require the imagination of future time so the brain can plan ahead of harsh seasons and disasters. 

What are the most urgent needs you are facing right now?