Why should you do the right thing?

Life is full of choices. Everyday we are constantly bombarded from every angle with different options of what to do in literally hundreds of different circumstances. There's all these different things that we could do, what we might do, what we should or shouldn't do. It is often hard to make the right choice.

As adults we know the difference between right and wrong. And eventually, in most cases, we sift through the vast ream of  possibility and come up with the right choice. It isn't always easy though to make ourselves do the right thing. It shouldn't matter though, right is right, right? Not exactly. Motivation matters also. Don't believe me? Let's see what I can do about that.

There used to be a person living here that very strongly wanted to do what was right. And if that's all that mattered things would have been just peachy. Unfortunately, she had a habit of badgering other people into admitting that she did the right thing. She wanted others to pat her on the back or give her a cookie, figuratively speaking of course. She needed to be seen doing the right thing. For her it was all about recognition and the reward for doing good. More time and energy got spent on making sure other people recognized whatever good deed got done than went into doing the thing in the first place. And it quite often overshadowed and cheapened the whole thing. It felt like she was trying to buy karma.

Then there's other people that do the right thing and often don't say a word to anyone about it. But anyone paying any real attention can tell they don't care about right or wrong. They are just doing the right thing because, this time, it happens to benefit them. It either has the most positive impact on their lives or the least negative. These opportunists would be just as happy doing the wrong thing if there was more profit in it.

Some people do the right thing specifically to avoid some negative consequence. Don't cheat on your taxes or the IRS will get you. Don't speed or you will get a ticket. Don't cheat on your spouse because it will end in divorce. Oh, plus, adultery is a sin, and I hear there is a pretty heavy consequence sin as well. Anyone in this category had better keep their motivations to themselves, because nobody has any respect for people that only do the right thing to avoid punishment. We don't trust them.

So if all these things are not good reasons to do the right thing, what is then? Why should you do the right thing? What should your motivation be? We all have our own value judgement systems. But even so.You know what is right and what is wrong according to what you believe. And when you make the wrong choice you know it is wrong and whether you want to admit it or not, on some level you beat yourself up over it, and you lose some of your personal power.

But, when you make the right choice, you KNOW that you have done something good and pure.  It empowers you and frees you of some of the bad you may have done in the past. Attaching any motivation to this at all weakens the effect. Put no thought into the consequences, good or bad, or worry over the trials and tribulations.

Do the right thing simply because it is the right thing.

(lack of) Motivation and Accomplishment

People idolize their favorite celebrities. Whether it be sports, music or movies we all have our favorites. But there is a part of this general pattern of behavior that I find really confusing.

We look at these superstars that have accomplished many great things and we say to ourselves that it is just awesome what they have been able to do. We find ourselves wishing we could do the things that they do or have done. There is a tendency I think to subconsciously demotivate ourselves because of the pedestal we put our idols on.

What is the difference between you and the likes of say Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift or Robin Thicke?  Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant or Tiger Woods, what makes them worth millions a year more than you? How are Hugh Jackman, Natalie Portman or Chris Hemsworth better than you?

The answers are nothing nothing and they aren't. There is no single person alive that is better than anyone else. We all have the same potential for massive greatness. The only difference between us and celebrities is the current status of our potential.

For the rich and famous, their potential is realized. For the rest of us our potential is unrealized. They have simply taken the steps that we have yet to walk. That's it. There is no other difference. Celebrities are not better than average people. Some of them may be more physically attractive but that often has more to do with fashion and makeup than genes.

If you take away the popularity and "status" celebrities are just normal people, many of whom are not all that bright. And as such we should relate ourselves more directly to them. If there is no difference between you and all the celebrities out there, then there is no reason, other than lack of motivation for your results to be any less than theirs.

We should be copying the things that they have done to become successful instead of wistfully gazing up at the pedestals we have placed them upon. We should use their success as the template and model for ours. If those once normal average humans can rise above the crowd so can we.

 Many people are of the opinion that if everyone is special and unique it means nobody is. But that idea is completely ridiculous. That's like saying a party with one cool person and a bunch of chumps is a better party than one where everyone is awesome. I don't know about you but i'd much rather hang out with the second crowd.

We all have talents and abilities that we can and should be using to get ahead in life. Now I am not saying everyone can be a rock star, which is good because not everyone likes rock (BLASPHEMY!). But everyone can certainly be truly great in at least one area of their life. And every person who isn't is selling themselves and the world short.

What is your biggest accomplishment to date?  What will it be ten years from now? And did this post change your outlook at all?

Why do you do what you do?

In theater, good performance is about more than just memorizing a bunch of words vocal tones and and facial expressions. Someone who is just regurgitating the lines that they have memorized and going through the general motions of their character is not going to do well in that role and will have a tough time obtaining new roles in the future.

In order to be a successful actor, on or off screen, you need to really get into the role of your character. In order to do that, you first need to figure out what it is that drives the character. What motivates them to do whatever it is that they do? Once you understand that it becomes easy to assume the role of that person.

The reason for this is because once you know what drives a person you can know with a fair degree of accuracy how they will feel and act when certain circumstances occur. Then as an actor you say and do the things that they would do. Even if you are restricted to specific lines due to the nature of the script you will know what the proper tone, inflection and pitch for your voice are based on how the character feels due to circumstance.

If knowing what drives a person is important in acting it is even more so in business. If you have no idea what motivates a person to buy a product, then you have no way of knowing whether or not they will buy a product that you have to offer. Assuming you want to be successful in business, you need to know your target audience. You need to ask yourself who is your target audience? And what do they tend to buy and why?

You can often increase sales dramatically just by putting your product in front of a more favorable audience. For example a lemonade stand is likely to make more money outside on a hot day near a sporting event than if it were inside on a cold day at a grocery store. Many of the same people might be in both locations. But they are driven more by their thirst on a hot sunny day outside than they would be on a cold day indoors.

But even more importantly, in order to be a successful businessperson, you need to know what drives you. You need to know why you are in business in the first place. Is this a temporary or one time thing? Are you just selling a bunch of stuff that you had in your garage? Are you attempting to replace your full time job with this business?

IF it is a long term business plan that you have there are more things to consider. Are you in love with money and willing to do whatever is necessary to make as much as possible in as short a time as you can? Are you driven by the need to take care of your family? Are you looking to revolutionize an industry in some way? Is it your goal to create some form of world change? Do you just want to make an extra couple of hundred dollars a month. Is it your goal to make hundreds of thousands or more a year?

Some of these things are very different from each other and methods that work in one will spell disaster for others. Part of the success plan for your business needs to be a vision statement of some kind that clearly spells out what drives you and why this business is a good fit for that motivation. If you are starting a business be sure to include this. If you are already in a business and do not have such a thing already, create it. Now. If you do not know why you are doing what you are doing, you are just going through the motions. Other people can sense this and are automatically repulsed by it. And, it becomes much easier to successfully meet your goals once you know why you do what you do.