Different thing motivate different people, but in essence there are two basic motivational forces - pleasure and pain. Now this has got nothing to do with sadomasochism or any other practices that may take place in the privacy of one’s home. This is about basic driving forces that govern human behaviour and the actions that we take in every area of our lives.

What motivates us to take action and do just about anything that we do can really be broken down into these two main emotions or driving forces. It also about movement. Put simply, everything we do, every action we ever take is, to varying degrees, either to move us away from pain, or to move us toward pleasure.

Different people react differently to different stimuli, and one of the most simple explanations of this principal that we should all be able to relate to is to compare different bosses you may have worked for.

Most people at some time will have had a boss who they were scared of. Even if you haven’t, no doubt you know of or can imagine a boss who is impossible to please and would publicly castigated any member of staff who didn’t perform as expected, or even for no reason at all. In this case staff may be so terrified that they will suffer this kind of treatment that they will work extremely hard just to ensure they keep on the right side of the boss. In these cases staff are motivated to do everything within their power to please the boss because they want to avoid the pain associated with displeasing him or her.

Pleasing the boss in this case doesn’t mean that you will get any pleasure; it just means that you won’t suffer any pain.

You may also have had another boss with stronger people skills and a completely different managerial style who believed in rewarding staff rather than bullying tactics. This boss is more likely to reward people for a job well done and give praise when praise is due. In this case you will most likely do as much as you can to please the boss because you want to do a good job and make them happy. You will also gain pleasure from the approval and encouragement you are likely to receive in return.

In the first scenario your behaviour and actions will most likely be driven by the desire to move you away from the pain associated with an unhappy boss. In the second scenario your actions are more likely to move you towards the pleasure you expect to receive when the boss is happy.

It’s a bit like the difference the difference between the carrot and the stick. Or the difference between getting a child to do something by psychology (or even bribery) instead of threats.

This applies to most human behaviour. Of course, it usually happens automatically with any thought whatsoever on our part. Some people respond more effectively to moving away from pain than moving to toward pleasure, but we all react to both in varying degrees. Different things will also work for different people at different time, but the basic principals still apply.

A husband may get a lot of pleasure playing golf all weekend, every weekend, but he may consider this worth sacrificing to avoid the pain of having an unhappy wife for the rest of the week. The pleasure a wife may find in shopping sprees may be curtailed by the pain caused by her husband’s disapproval and unhappiness. My apologies for the cliches, but no doubt you get the point.

What does this all mean for personal development? Quite a lot actually - you can use these principals to achieve a lot more and make yourself more productive by changing your perspective and how you look at just about anything.

Procrastination is one of the most common of all stumbling blocks to achievement that we all experience at some time. If we think about pain and pleasure we can use it in our advantage. Say you have to do something that you really don’t want to do, such as tidying the garage, digging the garden, decorating the spare room, doing the dishes, cleaning the house etc. These are all boring uninspiring jobs, and they often get put off and put off.

One thing that can really make a difference is if you change your perception of anything and how you view it. Instead of thinking about the pain of doing something, think about the pleasure of having it done and off your mind. Instead of moving away from the pain of doing a task by avoiding it, move towards the pleasure of having the task completed.

Change your perspective and visualise the finished task and feel the feelings of satisfaction, relief and pleasure you will feel when the task is completed.

Think about how it will feel to be able to easily find anything in the garage; how pleased you’ll be in springtime when you have a beautiful garden; how good it will feel to have your home finished and nicely decorated; or how much you enjoy having you home clean and tidy.

Changing your perspective and concentrating on the pleasure and the feelings of satisfaction that come from achievement and getting results can go a long way towards overcoming the pain of doing something that you don’t really want to do. If you work at this and concentrate you can even begin to feel pain if you don’t act. When this happens you’ll be at your most productive and get more done in less time than ever before and it will be a great boost to your overall success.