Primary Role: Motivation

“Many psychological scientists now assume that emotions are the dominant driver of most meaningful decisions in life. Put succinctly, emotion and decision making go hand in hand.” - Annual Review of Psychology

We are motivated by two things; to feel good and to not feel bad. These are about Creation and Protection.

The Drive to bring what you value into the World.

We are deeply driven to add value to the world and doing so is the source of our self-worth. We feel better about ourselves when we feel as though we’ve contributed somehow. How we measure that contribution is individual and important to figure out.

We need the perception of opportunity, or the belief that we can create things of value, to be engaged by our desire to create. If we do not feel we can, this drive is diminished or blocked.

Our desire to create is the source of purpose, fulfillment, and meaning. It is also the source of many positive emotions such as happiness and joy.

We are triggered when we perceive danger and our ability to create is blocked or restricted.

Our brain switches from Creation to Protection.

The Drive to restore or defend what you value.

The perception of threat causes our brains to switch into a protection mode. We do not feel safe and our ability to create is restricted or blocked.

Our focus narrows to the source of the trigger and it can consume our attention.

We feel engaged, but for negative reasons and it doesn’t feel good.

Protection mode causes us to feel emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, apathy, or withdrawal.

Preventing or getting out of Protection mode is covered in the be Resilient objective.