I only need motivation when I am disempowered & unhappy. Motivation will never make me happy, though it may please me.
Motivation pleases me when it either meets one of my emotional needs or overcomes the fear of not getting an emotional need met. This is the analogy of the carrot & the stick.
- I motivate you with a carrot when I meet your emotional need
- I motivate you with a stick when you fear that an emotional need will remain unmet
Using a carrot or a stick, a reward or a threat, is how I motivate someone else to act under my authority and do what I want them to do. This pleases myself by others pleasing me but it will never make me happy, only pleased rather than displeased.
Empowerment is emotional power with personal authority, which comes from within and is not to be confused with self-motivation.
Self-motivation is my ability to motivate myself by meeting my own emotional needs. When I fill my emotional need with energy, I am meeting my need for emotional power myself and this has value. My self-worth is greater when I meet my emotional needs myself than when I need someone else to meet them for me. Self-esteem has value whereas the esteem of other people is a need. When motivating myself, I am pleasing myself, which pleases me because it has value; but not a true value.
Doing what I truly value allows the experience of being Truly Happy. Only when I connect to my true sovereign authority can I become truly empowered and be Happy.