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“ If we fail to decide; we decide to fail’’

• What determines different actions in different human beings?
• What are the driving forces behind all human behaviors?
• What creates a hero? What creates a criminal?
• What are the forces presently controlling you and will continue to do so in the future?

• Role of Nature – 

Nature has placed entire mankind under the governance of two supreme forces or twin powers – Pain and Pleasure. Everything we plan to do, we decide to do, we do, we act or we do not act are based on the pain and pleasure principle. All activities around us are either to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

• Pain-Pleasure Principle –

Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) was an Austrian neurologist who is perhaps most known as the founder of psychoanalysis. He proposed a ‘pain-pleasure principle’ which suggests that people make choices to avoid or decrease pain or make choices that create or increase pleasure. The pain-pleasure principle is the core of all decisions we make. Our beliefs, values, actions, and decisions are built upon this principle. 

CLICK HERE to know about the Pain-Pleasure principle by Freud

• The Foundation of Pain-Pleasure Principle –

The principle is founded on who we are due to how pain and pleasure are interpreted based on our previous past experiences. The pleasure is sought to reward ourselves with immediate gratification. The principle also suggests that while seeking pleasure people also seek to avoid pain. For those individuals where conflict is painful, they will do anything to avoid conflict. They may not allow a negative situation to continue but the thoughts of dealing with conflict for them are far more painful, unhealthy, and undesirable. 

CLICK HERE and Read Books of Sigmund Freud 

• Managing Pain-Pleasure Dynamics –

  Usually, our mind is pre-conditioned with some limiting beliefs and Thoughts. Most of our beliefs are generalizations of our past painful or pleasurable experiences. One needs to learn to link pleasurable sensations to specific behavior. Pain too sometimes is a very powerful motivator in shaping people’s behavior. This pain-pleasure dynamics is crucial as pleasure without pain not attainable.

CLICK HERE and Read an Article on Balancing Pain and Pleasure 

“ The aim of wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain” – Aristotle. 

Read Books on Aristotle. Check price on Amazon. CLICK HERE. 

     As rightly explained by Anthony Robbins, the motivational speaker, author, and coach that – “ The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you are in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you”

• How People Around You Uses The Pain-Pleasure Principle – 

• Department of Promotion and Marketing –

• Pain Factor Applications – Intimidating, scaring, or creating fear of pain in the mind of buyers or prospective buyers is a way of the campaign. By this fear of pain-building tactics consumers, many a time change their buying preference or change behavior. 

• Pleasure Factor Applications – Conversely, pleasure-based promotion creates ‘cool’, ‘Happy’ or ‘fun’ factors on the minds of buyers. An inspiration pushes them to select products and give them a ‘feel-good factor’.

• Employees Motivation – 

  Employees can be made motivated or demotivated by applying pain and pleasure. Recognizing performance, celebrating results, maintaining working ambiance, sharing future directions, handsome pay packages are sources of pleasure. The pain of fear on the other hand persists too as a motivator. Although a lot of research and evidence-based studies showed that fear comes with a lot of risks and may not be a sustainable tool for motivation or sometimes may be a cause of Depression.

CLICK HERE and Read an Interesting Article on Fear factor and Motivation

• Political Campaigns – In an electoral campaign fear building is a common tactic. The negative advertisement based on fear of pain runs quicker and people tend to pay more attention to such promotion. Advertisers understand how to link pain sensations to the audience and get faster participation.  

• Managing and Achieving More –

Remember the perception of pain and fear of pain drives you, it is not the actual pain. Similarly, it is not the actual pleasure that drives you, but your generalized belief system that drives you for pleasure. This is what is popularly known as – BAR theory.

BAR = Belief > Actions > Results ( Pleasure ).

CLICK HERE and Read Amazing Book on Belief-system 

So, take a notebook and a pen and write down –

• What are the fear that is holding you back to realize your dream!
• What actions can you take to overcome those fear?
• What you will lose if you do not take action right now?
• What are the pleasures you will get taking actions right away?

Focus on ‘Right NOW’ and complete the exercise. Remember, our minds are pre-conditioned in favor of our convenience. To get pleasure you have to go against the basic conditioning of your mind. Practice changing your limiting beliefs. 

• Conclusion – Remember the core message is –everything we do, we do either out of our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure. Sometimes, we get many references from past about our pain and failure and we start believing nothing can be made better in our life. One needs to convert fear into power. If we associate enough pain to anything with a strong belief to change, change is possible & miracles will happen. So….are you ready to be a part of life’s pain-pleasure dynamics and achieve as you plan with a positive mindset?