Seymour's Less Famous Brother, Burrhus Frederic

People are motivated by different things. Some people are motivated by money, some by prestige. Some are self motivated while others need their marching orders handed down from an authority figure.

Motivation influences behavior. So says famed psychologist B.F. Skinner and I just so happen to agree with him, as does most of the world. Need a quick B.F. Skinner update? Just search for him on Wikipedia and you’ll find your answers. Thinking about the work of Dr. Skinner today led me to realize that my behavior is influenced less by positive reinforcement than it is by negative reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement is all well and good for self motivated people. If you make your bed, your mom will let you have a cookie. If you get a job, you will make money. If you work hard, you will get a promotion and make more money. If you keep your reputation pristine, you could run for office some day.

When it comes to someone who is, by their nature, lazy, negative reinforcement seems to work better. A lazy person doesn’t care about the cookie and, while they might need money, they won’t necessarily work hard enough to make more of it. The lazy person’s world revolves around different motivational factors. If you make your bed, your mom won’t yell at you. If you get a job, your mom won’t take away your video games. If you mind your own business and obey the law, you won’t go to jail.

The nature of negative reinforcement is that one tends to avoid the bad rather than pursue the good. Sadly, I’m beginning to believe I fit into this category.

I’ve been off work for a while recently, yet fortunate enough to collect my paychecks. For a while, the free time was liberating. I started writing more, this blog as an example, and enjoyed spending time with my family. However, I would start to take this free time for granted. I knew I wasn’t getting paid to write, so I would publish posts that weren’t my best. I started getting bored more easily. The prospect of going back to work was not pressing so my motivation wasn’t as fiery. I was still getting paid and could stay up all night if I chose to as long as I met a few minimum standards. Get the kids to school, feed them, don’t blow up the house. Not the most inspirational of tales, I know.

Recently, I went back to work. I now have to perform this job that I really don’t like day to day in order to collect a paycheck. Yet, negative reinforcement will keep me doing it. Not because I see money or social acceptance as a positive light at the end of the tunnel or cheese at the end of the maze. It’s because I see the electric shock of living in my parents’ basement and taking a job at GameStop where I will surely become like the guy who sells me video games, a bit too eager to converse with every single customer because he longs for human contact.

But there is an extra level of negative reinforcement at work here. Maybe if I write more, write better, I could do something else for a living. Maybe if I go back to school in my spare time, I could get a job I like better. I am more inspired during my free time, even though I now suddenly have less of it. I want to squeeze more out of that free time than I was previously because I have the motivation of escaping the Hell that is my job. I’m seeking to avoid the daily spray of water to the nose.

I think I’m going to market a new line of inspirational posters. It will feature the negative results of failing to heed my inspiring advice. Instead of the pole-vaulter or the mountain climber achieving spectacular feats, I will print a picture of someone in jail with the caption: Go Back To School. There could be a man sleeping in a cardboard box with the text beneath: Don’t Piss Off Your Boss. Maybe there could even be one with a depressed looking man sitting in a cramped cubicle with tears in his eyes that simply reads: Follow Your Dreams.