All motivation really means is 'a motive to take action'.

Someone who is effective at motivating themselves and others is basically an expert at communication.

We all motivate ourselves all the time. Everyday when you get up to brush your teeth, your mind searches for 'motives' to do it: "I will get cavities if I don't", "I'll look sexier with white teeth" and so forth.(*1)

Individuals who are the best and most skilled motivators (communicators) help others and themselves find motives (reasons) do things that will ultimately be rewarding for them but: are tough to do, don't have immediate gratification, or aren?t exactly clear how they will help us grow.

Question 1:
The source of our motivation really comes back to our beliefs about something. When we are trying to understand, ?Why do we do what we do?? it is important to know our sources and decide if it is helping us grow or bringing us down. So when what we are doing isn?t what we want to be doing, we know how to change. You can?t change (long term) if you don?t address the source.

The source of another?s motivation can be tricky to evaluate. Sometimes people do things out of reasons we just can?t understand or make sense of. And based on their actions, we think they are totally nuts. However, instead of focusing on peoples actions, we?d better understand them if we understand their source of motivation. Because then we know that even though we don?t agree with what they are doing, we can understand why they are doing it.*

Question 2:
Fear and anger, (I?m not too sure about greed), can be very effective and awesome ways to turn situations around or get yourself (and others) off their/your butt(s). What I?ve seen from my experience is that they aren?t the most effective emotions to keep you going. Mainly because the amount of energy they consume, (relative to emotions such as bliss, joy, and fulfillment).

Question 3:
What is higher motivation?

(*1) When you do something over and over again, after a while our motives become subconscious and aren't required to be thought about before we do something. No one I know actively thinks of reasons of why they are brushing, but the motives are still there.

"I also think it is interesting that many of the people who were involved in corporate scandals were also pillars in their communities donating millions of dollars. "

I remember a marketing lecture about situational and universal ethics. Sometimes we make decisions to do something "wrong" such as lie or cheat on corporate accounting issues, but we do not lie to our friends, family, or spouse. Honesty can be a universal value/ethic but may not be in certain situations, such as taxes (or accounting scandals).

Have you ever lied/fibbed/exaggerated in a larger context such as taxes, but never lie to a friend? I know I've committed something along those lines.

i agree

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