What motivates you to work hard?

There are two opposed energies that drive our behaviour.

The two great human motivators are the emotional energies that we call Love and Fear. In fact, all human actions are motivated at their deepest level by one of those two emotions—fear or love.

We may be motivated by a terrorist threat (intense fear). On the other hand, we may be motivated by a strong love, like a passion.

Every human thought, and every human action, is based in either love or fear. There is no other human motivation, and all other ideas are but derivatives of these two. They are simply different versions—different twists on the same theme.

Think on this deeply and you will see that it is true. This has been called the Sponsoring Thought. It is either a thought of love or fear. This is the thought, behind the thought, behind the thought. It is the first thought. It is prime force. It is the raw energy that drives the engine of human experience.

Every action taken by human beings is based in love or fear, not simply those dealing with relationships. Decisions affecting business, industry, politics, religion, the education of our young, the social agenda of our nations, the economic goals of our society, choices involving war, peace, attack, defense, aggression, submission; determinations to covet or give away, to save or to share, to unite or to divide—every single free choice we ever undertake arises out of one of the only two possible thoughts there are: a thought of love or a thought of fear.