Thanks all who've posted so far - it was interesting to read all your thoughts.
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"Take care of yourself, and take care of somebody else." - George Carlin
Simple but very complete. If you're actively living this then I'm sure you're been appreciated, perhaps even more than you know.
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"Try not to kill yourself. Try not to kill anyone else."
^ That's the rule I live by these days. Considering my circumstances, I'd say that's pretty positive.
I've spent most of my life trying to be the best person I can be. I'm a self-help junkie, so I'd say personal excellence has always been important to me. I push myself pretty hard (my therapist would say, "too hard"*). I'm not really interested in money; I'm interested in solving problems and making people happy, and I'd like to make the world a better (or at least more interesting) place, so I guess my "core motivating principles" don't line up with capitalism very well (probably why I'm so poor now).
My bare minimum rule is: "Do the best you can." I might fail spectacularly at everything I do (and so far I have) but at least I'll die knowing that I did everything I could and I won't die with any regrets. I think that's important. No death-bed angst, just a "thank God it's over".
* but not hard enough, apparently.
It's inspiring that you're pushing yourself to live to the fullest, and help others in doing so - no doubt you've provided more than a helping hand to fellow forum members too (which does drive why I'm in this forum, having also gone through a very long self-help journey). Though money can be a tool for helping to support your higher-level core principles, just making money for the sake of it would always to me seem like quite an empty principle anyway. Having no regrets on my death-bed is also my driver - making sure I've done the best I could is the important thing.
I'm hoping you will make those achievements someday - and I'm sure we at this forum are happy to help offer support and advice where we can. Keep on striving.
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motivation appears arbitrarily. I try not to bring on the apocalypse, but sometimes I wish it would come already. I had a thing for distributive justice but not now. I want to have a good time when I can, and get to know people better if I can. I dont have much luck in those things. I guess I dont want to stop watching the movie partway through, I'll keep on living till I'm dead.
"Arbitrary" is an interesting way of putting it. I know motivation sometimes takes will power to adhere to, which in itself is conscious and non-automatic at times.
Whether you expected a direct response from me or not, I do see admiral aspects in this post. Certainly a respectable contribution to this thread - and I wish you more luck on managing to experience these things you mention wanting (don't worry - I won't be offering unsolicited advice).
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Originally Posted by
Persephone The Dread
View Post
Honestly I don't have anything.
Fair enough. Out of curiosity, are there any principles you generally live by? If fears and anxiety weren't a factor, would there be anything that you
wouldn't do (as opposed to "couldn't" do)? Are there lines that you wouldn't cross?
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I'm mostly motivated by gut-level fears of things (bad things about to happen mostly). I don't have any principles.
Even intellectual high-level fears don't affect me either. My brain only works with immediate threats to my safety or comfort.
Interesting perspective. So would you consider your motivations to be instinctive and reactionary? Also, do you just deal with these as they come, or do you ever try to mitigate the chances of these happening?