Many people follow the well-known pleasure and pain principle. They want to increase their pleasure and minimise any pain. They also want to feel in control and get the basic materials for life.
Different people are then driven by different things in their lives and work. They may then translate these into working towards achieving their picture of success.
This piece summarises some of the drivers that people may follow. There are, of course, many other drivers. People may also combine some of the different drivers and translate these into action.
Purpose Driven
Some people are driven by a sense of purpose. They may aim to follow a spiritual faith, follow their vocation or pursue a mission. They then work towards achieving a compelling goal.
Such people wake up each day and focus on how they can pursue their purpose. They may then aim to use their strengths to do superb work and achieve their view of success.
Some may take the following steps towards achieving their goals. They keep focusing on their purpose, follow their principles and do their best to achieve their picture of success.
Such people find it important to follow their chosen principles when pursuing their purpose. These principles act as a guiding compass that provides a framework for making decisions in their life and work.
They may actually be principles driven rather than prize driven. They get a win every day by following their principles and sometimes, as a by-product, they may also get prizes.
Some people take another approach. They focus on what they feel passionately about and then translate this into a specific purpose. They may aim to do a stimulating project, do superb work or do their best to achieve peak performance.
People Driven
Some people are people driven. They enjoy being with certain people and giving them encouragement. They feel alive when they are with these people and want to help them to succeed.
Different people express this drive in different ways. They may aim to build a happy family, provide an inspiring education or build a positive work place. They aim to support people and provide them with positive memories for life.
People who follow this approach sometimes embody the principles followed by good educators. They aim to encourage, educate and enable people to achieve their picture of success.
Some people translate their caring for people into aiming to encourage both present and future generations. They may also pass on knowledge and make a positive contribution during their time on the planet.
Power Driven
Some people are power driven. They want to feel important, gain a certain status or become famous. This can lead to constant striving. It can also lead to behaving in ways that have consequences for themselves or other people.
Such people may also want to achieve actual power. They want to get into positions where they can control people or tell other people how they should live. This can become addictive and lead to them wanting even more power.
Some people combine several of these drivers. Sometimes this can be positive for both themselves and other people. Sometimes it can be negative and create collateral damage.
Let’s return to your own life and work. What are the specific things you do to be purpose driven, people driven or follow other drives? How do you translate these into action?
What are the potential pluses and minuses of taking these steps? What are the specific things you can do to build on the pluses and minimise the potential minuses?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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