I just watched this amazing video of a 96 year old man bungee jumping. I found it strange but amazing. First of all it is amazing when anyone does something that would really scare the hell out of most normal people. However, when you’re 96 and doing these crazy, scary things one has to wonder what motivates you to do it? This all got me thinking about what motivates people?
I know a lot of people are motivated by money either they have it and want to keep it or they don’t have it and want to obtain it. Some people are motivated by jealousy. They want something someone else has. Others are motivated by thrills. This would be the bungee jumper types and those people that want to climb every mountain they can find. Some people are motivated by sex. It defines their every real moment in life. Some people are motivated by religion. It is their center for all they do. As I’m writing this I’m thinking this reminds me of the seven deadly sins: wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony. Maybe these are all of the things that really motivate us. If you think about it and plug in the word each and every one of these probably motivates many of us.
Some people are motivated by anger. Anger gets them to do things they might not otherwise do both good and bad. Anger can be a great motivator when you want to show someone else that you are better than they are at something. However, then you have to worry about that old “pride” thing. I’ve never really understood why pride is a sin unless you are holding something over someone else’s head. You know like “I’m better than you are stuff.” Jealousy can fall under the old greed and envy sins. They are all tied together. We all know people that always think the grass is greener on the other side or those that feel like life has some how been harder for them, and maybe it has. I don’t know if people are motivated by sloth. I do know some people that don’t want to put much effort into anything. We all know people that want to just “get by”. They aren’t really motivated to push themselves for anything extra. They aren’t motivated by money or much of the other things that motivate people. They’re happy when they’re not challenged. They aren’t motivated to clean up their own environment as that might take too much effort. Many of us are motivated by food or alcohol or some other vice. We’re motivated because it tastes or feels good. It’s a quick fix for anything that might be ailing us.
Obviously, as I’m thinking about it many things can at any one time motivate us. I have always been motivated by my own moral code and sense of honor and duty. There is no escaping this thing inside me probably developed from Catholicism. It’s that little thing that constantly tells me what is right and wrong and heaven forbid that I choose what is wrong. It’s hard to live with a moral conscious but I’ve grown accustom to it all these years. It doesn’t mean that I sit in judgment of other people, it just means there is always something in my head weighing most important decisions that I make.
Some people are motivated by other people. I suppose Barack Obama motivated a lot of people with his “Yes, I can!” mantra. We know that Hitler was highly motivating as he got many people to follow him. Other people can be motivating to us whether we realize it or not. Sometimes when I’m teaching I see my students get motivated by the artwork of other students. They watch and learn and sometimes it will get them working and feeling like they too can create something wonderful.
I’ve never understood what motivates a lot of people. I don’t think I’m very good at figuring people out at all. I am just an observer of this crazy world we live in. I will quietly think and write about all of the things that I think about. What motivated me to write today was a crazy 96 year old bungee jumper. My words cannot express the exhilaration he must have felt flying through the air but I can try to understand what might have motivated him. Humans are a complicated species that are made up of risk takers and quiet writers that can only dream of the excitement and exhilaration of the oldest bungee jumper!