Gary C Smith, Director of Education and Training and Geomic Code Reader, Geomic Code Research Institute - November 26, 2020

At the Geomic Code Research Institute, we study choice, especially the unconscious choices humans make. This series of articles has been looking at the 6 areas of decision-making influence that drive our choices: Intent, Situation, Values, Destiny, Purpose, and Motivation. The first article in this series was posted on the Geomic Code website in May 2020. In that first article, I discussed “purpose“. In July, my focus was “intention”; in August, it was “situation”, in September, “values”, and in October, “destiny”.

In this last of our 6-article series, we will examine what might just be the most important of these areas of decision-making influence from a Geomic Code perspective – motivation.

The Institute has designed the Geomic Code Assessment so that you can take it more than one time. The results of your Assessment, together with other tools the Institute has put together – The Geomic Code Word Cloud, The WAY, and a personalized reading of your Assessment by a trained reader – can help you recognize and uncover the motivations influencing your life in the present moment at an unconscious level. You can then bring your choices into the light of conscious decision-making to create the life you wish to live.

The dictionary definition of “motivation” tells us that it is the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way. Similar words are incentive, stimulus, inspiration, impulse, inducement, incitement, spurring, goading, provocation, reason, rationale, ground(s), enthusiasm, drive, ambition, initiative, determination, enterprise, and a sense of purpose.

Motivation coming from outside ourselves is called “extrinsic”. This type of motivation has our attention fixed on achieving goals with results that can be measured. Many of the things we do on a regular basis are probably motivated by external forces, such as parents, religion, educational institutions, and professional organizations, and, often, we do these things to receive rewards or avoid punishment. (You have probably heard this type of motivation referred to as “the stick or the carrot”.)

Extrinsic motivation promotes competition and usually requires involvement by other people outside ourselves to spur us to action that can be measured as “winning”.

According to a paper in the “Frontiers in Human Neuroscience” section of the website published by the National Institutes of Health, “Intrinsic motivation refers to people’s spontaneous tendencies to be curious and interested, to seek out challenges and to exercise and develop their skills and knowledge, even in the absence of operationally separable rewards.”

Intrinsic motivators include personal / family survival / safety or a desire to avoid physical or emotional pain. Intrinsic motivation can also be primarily self-focused, what marketers call the “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) factor. In this sense, intrinsic motivation allows an individual to see how serving others can also serve self. (For example, running a marathon will help me lose weight while also raising money for a worthwhile cause.)

The founder of the Geomic Code Research Institute, Phil Canville, discovered a system, a kind of soul code, that can show us an elevated way of interacting with the world around us – consciously and in connection with “the better angels of our nature”, as Abraham Lincoln described.

Taking a Geomic Code Assessment and using the tools the Institute offers can be a journey of discovery of motivation as “Noble Cause”. This type of motivation is closely tied to your raison d’etre (reason for being). Remember looking at this in relationship to “purpose” in our first article in this series?

Seeing motivation through the lens of purpose shows us how “self” can be served by making a difference in the world in collaboration with others. With that in mind, let’s look at “motivation” using the digital remembering tool featured in this 6-article series: 1) Thumb: What is this thing I want to know more about? 2) Index Finger: What does this thing do? 3) Middle Finger: How can I use this thing? 4) Commitment Finger: When can I use this thing? 5) Pinkie Finger: What results can I expect from using this thing?

1) What is motivation?

Motivation is the force that compels us to act. Motivation can be a stick or a carrot that compels us to move toward what we want (a goal, profit, survival, esteem, and / or love) or away from fear, pain, shame, and / or embarrassment. Motives are strong feelings that can take us, as human beings, from one end of the emotional continuum inhabited by apathy and inertia to the other end characterized by enthusiasm, excitement, and purpose.

2) What does motivation do?

Motivation awakens and creates action on the pathway to a goal. Our findings at the Geomic Code Research Institute indicate that the unique strengths we discover in ourselves (what we call Dynamic Natural Abilities) can provide the leverage of courage to decide on the life we want to live and the direction it will take.

3) How do you use motivation?

Believe that motivation resides within you, and sharpen it daily. Invest in learning what motivates you to aspire to Noble Causes. Understand that what moves you to action can serve both you and others. Discover the power of “yes, and” rather than “either, or”. The key is to find motivations that work for you and consciously choose them as your personal “call to action”.

4) When do you use motivation?

On Monday mornings, when you feel “stuck”, at the best of times and the worst of times. Motivation is the crucial driving force that can always satisfy your need to be, do and have what you want.

5) What results can you expect when you are motivated?

With motivation being the wind in your sails, you get things done, complete projects, and fuel your confidence to take further action. Motivation is the energy that helps you perform at your best as you interact with the world around you.

As the Geomic Code Research Institute has worked with others to understand what Geomic Code Assessment results can teach us about ourselves as individuals and as a people, we have had the opportunity to survey others, on an informal basis, about these 6 areas of decision-making influence I have been writing about in this blog article series. People’s answers to our questions revealed some interesting perceptions about motivation’s role in living one’s best life.

For some, self-motivation is interwoven with a desire to pass that motivation onto others. For these folks, “Let’s play!” is a favorite expression. Playing with others at 100 percent capacity helps them be their best selves because it keeps them listening, learning new skills, asking for help, and modeling what success means to them in connection with other people. For them, collaboration is its own reward.

Others we’ve talked to find the source of their motivation primarily in the spiritual realm. For them service to humanity is an important way to keep connected to others.

Some find facing life “one day at a time” – coupled with an “I can do it” mindset – the compelling force that helps them stay motivated.

Still others say that they are driven primarily by those extrinsic motivators I pointed to earlier in this article – pushed to perform because they feel they have to by the “should’s” in their lives.

The answers that most concerned us indicated a lack of energy, perhaps as a result of recent events. For those feeling this kind of ennui, I reference Harry Palmer, the creator of Star’s Edge International. He has said, “Desires and resistances supply the motives that direct you when you don’t.”

When we asked people how they sustain motivation over time, their answers used words such as “excitement”, “energy”, “worthwhile projects”, “making it personal”, “being focused”, “finding ways to feel good about myself”, “clearing my mental pallet”, “finding joy in small victories”, “keeping my eye on the prize”, and “taking that first step…and then the next…and the next”.

What does motivation have to do with the Geomic Code?

At the Geomic Code Research Institute, we have been discussing our 6 areas of decision-making influence (Intent, Situation, Values, Destiny, Purpose, and Motivation) with a view to the kinds of workshops and other tools we can offer in the future. I invite you to join the conversation by providing your comments and / or questions in the box at the end of this article.

The Geomic Code Word Cloud is a first step in this journey of self-discovery that is the Geomic Code Assessment. The next step is to invest in The WAY, a more in-depth look into the specifics of what your Assessment reveals as the fulcrum upon which your life balances and from which you make unconscious and conscious choices.

Stay tuned and, in the meantime, please take a Geomic Code Assessment and let us know how we can help you take your Assessment results to the next level.