Pain and Pleasure as Motivators 🎯

All human behavior follows the Pain-Pleasure Principle—we act to gain pleasure or avoid pain. What controls behavior is not actual feelings but what we anticipate will lead to those feelings.

Key distinctions for lasting change:

• Short-term vs. lo...

• It’s not actual pain that drives us, but our fear that something will lead to pain.
• And it’s not actual pleasure that drives us, but our belief—our sense of certainty—that somehow taking a certain action will lead to pleasure.
• We’re not driven by t...

• Some people find pleasure in watching something painful, finding that the pleasure is outweighing the pain.
• Others can feel a sort of catharsis, a liberation from their negative emotions, with the pain of others facilitating a kind of relief from their own traumas.
• Many fi...