Are You Motivated by Comfort?

Even if you believe you are not motivated, you are. You may not be motivated by success, money, freedom, security, or happiness. But you are in fact motivated, and it could be that you are motivated by comfort.

If you want to stay in bed and hit the snooze button three times, you are motivated by the warm comfort of sleep. Sleep is necessary, but the additional comfort of nine minutes is not.

Entertainment is a form of escape. It isn’t necessarily negative, unless it consumes more of your time than it should, and unless is subtracts from your higher calling. That escape is a form of comfort. It prevents you from having to deal with the part of your reality that isn’t comfortable.

The avoidance of constructive conflict is a form of comfort. Not having to have necessary—but difficult conversations—is another form of comfort that may motivate you, in this case the motivation is avoidance.

Some people are afraid to share their voice, fearful that they will be judged as not being good enough—or worse, ridiculed. They find comfort and safety in the fear of not having to risk being criticized.

Comfort is a growth and performance inhibitor. It prevents you from being more, having more, doing more, and contributing more. If you are not uncomfortable, you are not growing. More still, you are not making the contribution you are capable of making.

Comfort should motivate you. But in the ways described above it should be a warning sign that you need to make a significant change now, and you should stretch yourself beyond whatever you are comfortable with now.