![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
External Pressure, Internal Motivation
May. 9th, 2007 07:47 pmHave you given much thought to the distinction between external pressure and internal motivation? External pressures are urgent, while internal motivations, by contrast, are important.
Case in point-- I'm comfortable with a nomad life. I don't need to own a bunch of stuff. I've never nested. I'm using crash space on a couch in Lansing one night a week for my temp job. In fact, that's where I am right now, and it really struck home to me how comfortable I am. Do I have external pressures to increase my income to get the trappings of the American dream? Sure I do. The funny thing is, once you figure out what your internal motivations are, and keep your eyes on the prize, it becomes easier to not sweat external pressures. I could sleep in my car and be perfectly content, if I got a gym membership for a shower, and if I had a laptop and knew where an open wireless connection was.
I have a network of awesome people. All of them collectively are my real home. I'm not to the level of Manfred Macx, of course. He's the "venture altruist" character from Accelerando who gives away intellectual property to everybody he meets under free licenses. He travels the world without spending a dollar anywhere, because the people he's helped around the world would provide for his modest needs. Maybe it's an exaggeration of what could be possible in the real world. But it's inspirational archetype all the same.
The point is, it's worth not sweating the stuff most people think I should value, because I have a dream of how to achieve something plausably spectacular, or at least fail awesomely while trying. How did I ever get by before I had that? See, that's my view of real ambition. I'm not going to settle for less. Even when external pressures are at their highest, it's better to take the path to pursue internal motivations than to take the path that seeks to make external pressures let up.
Case in point-- I'm comfortable with a nomad life. I don't need to own a bunch of stuff. I've never nested. I'm using crash space on a couch in Lansing one night a week for my temp job. In fact, that's where I am right now, and it really struck home to me how comfortable I am. Do I have external pressures to increase my income to get the trappings of the American dream? Sure I do. The funny thing is, once you figure out what your internal motivations are, and keep your eyes on the prize, it becomes easier to not sweat external pressures. I could sleep in my car and be perfectly content, if I got a gym membership for a shower, and if I had a laptop and knew where an open wireless connection was.
I have a network of awesome people. All of them collectively are my real home. I'm not to the level of Manfred Macx, of course. He's the "venture altruist" character from Accelerando who gives away intellectual property to everybody he meets under free licenses. He travels the world without spending a dollar anywhere, because the people he's helped around the world would provide for his modest needs. Maybe it's an exaggeration of what could be possible in the real world. But it's inspirational archetype all the same.
The point is, it's worth not sweating the stuff most people think I should value, because I have a dream of how to achieve something plausably spectacular, or at least fail awesomely while trying. How did I ever get by before I had that? See, that's my view of real ambition. I'm not going to settle for less. Even when external pressures are at their highest, it's better to take the path to pursue internal motivations than to take the path that seeks to make external pressures let up.
