Tag Archives: modern motivators

day 2624: Modern Motivators

“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”

Seth Godin writes about what drives behavior in a modern and privileged society.  He says it is these things:

  • Fear
  • Desire for habit and ease
  • Greed (fueled by fear)
  • Curiosity
  • Generosity/Connection

I wish I could say that we are more driven by the bottom two than the top three, but I think that assessment would be wrong. What those who try to motivate us to act, purchase, change, etc. do is use behavioral economics to make trade-offs from where we might be in one of the five above to another, wanting to move us just enough to get a reaction and action that is desired.  We fall for it all day long and of course, we learn how to do the same to garner and win over customers and consumers.  The question is, “What responsibility do we have to be sure that we aren’t always driving people to fear, habit, ease or greed?”

I’m pretty sue that we can’t follow God’s commands to motivate one another to acts of good and love if we are using fear, habit, ease or greed as the behavioral  catalyst.  We should let those who aren’t trying to model Jesus in their work do that.  We should focus on the good, the generosity and the hopefulness that comes from positive curiosity and connection. It’s a small but important example to others.

Hebrews 10:24 (New Living Translation)