A Series Of Posts On Motivation Certainty

A SERIES OF POSTS ON MOTIVATION: CERTAINTY Assuming we’re all fairly okay with the “Six Human Needs” I introduced last weekâ€"and I’m not entirely convinced myself, however this list is on the very least an excellent starting pointâ€"let’s dive in to the first of the six: certainty. It’s not at all uncommon or obscure why someone would need to really feel certain of one thingâ€"sure in a perception, in a technique, and so forth. This quest for certainty is behind each scientific and spiritual thought. A spiritual person might really feel certain that God is searching for him, and a mathematician can feel certain that 2+2=four. Everything from the Ten Commandments to Newton’s Laws are the results of a quest for certainty. This conduct is always bad. If this happens then this end result will observe, for certain. We truly can be certain of issues like gravity. If I climb up onto my roof and bounce off, I am absolutely sure that I will fall, and I am equally certain that I shall be badly injured consequently. This prevents me from jumping off my roof. So then worldbuilders take notice. I even have that certainty within the legal guidelines of physics within the universe in which I stay. But what if the foundations change? What if I have one thing like D&D’s ring of featherfalling?I may leap off my roof and rely on the magic of the ring to float me gently to the bottom. What if I’m not on Earth at all, but on the Moon, where gravity is just one sixth of Earth’s? I know people who find themselves certain of the existence of God, changing the necessity for evidence with religion. People absolutely don't require experimental evidence like two damaged legs instantly following the jump from the roof, to be as sure of Heavenly Rewards as I am of gravity. Likewise, for us worldbuilders… I’ve seemed round the real world for greater than fifty-three years now and really feel sure that there is no God, but when I lived in, say, the Forgotten Realms world, I could be much, rather more sure of t he existence of those gods, who sometimes interact with the mortal world. How does that change the idea of religion, in both the larger sense of a private spiritual feeling and in the numerous human establishmentsâ€"church buildings and temples and cultsâ€"that encompass them? Though there are a lot of issues we are able to feel sure of in either our actual-world or invented physics, there are no less than as many issues we will’t really feel sure about at all. Looking someone within the eye, listening rigorously to the best way she’s speaking, the words she uses, may persuade you that that person is mendacity, however you'll be able to’t really be certainâ€"until, once more, the foundations change and now you’re psychic and might hear that person’s internal dialog. So magic or SF tech can lend certainty to otherwise unsure situations. Characters who seek out certainty can generally be tragic characters once they look for that within the mistaken locationsâ€"within the exi stence of some mysterious drive that refuses to reveal itself, or in a lie or misconception. At the identical time, certainty in a hero can propel that character ahead towards appreciable odds. When one thing works towards a character’s sense of certainty, whether that character is a hero, a villain, or someplace in between, unhealthy things can occur. In his e-book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, Mark Manson provided what he called Manson’s Law: “The more one thing threatens your identity, the more you'll avoid it.” And a lot of what comprises our “identity” comes from our varied certainties. To some extent, no less than, we turn into what we believe we're. I didn’t need to dig too deeply to find an example of certainty in motion. I’m simply finishing up the science fiction novel Wine of the Dreamersby John D. MacDonald, a blind pick from my Sci-Fi Paperback Grab-bag. In this novel from 1950, alien Watchers use advanced know-how to inhabit the bodies of Earthli ngs sooner or later world of 1975 to be able to sabotage our efforts to explore area. After the intentional destruction by sabotage of Earth’s first starship, our heroes see their efforts scuttled, their warnings of an alien conspiracy dismissed, and former allies selling them out. In this bit from a hearing on the incident, we see a personalityâ€"not a villain, and never one of the alien brokersâ€"expressing with full certainty, his opinion of the matter: I read this version from the 70s. “You will find in my record that two years ago when Project Tempo was being thought of, I read the survey reports and filed a unfavorable opinion. That ladyâ€"I ought to say Dr. Inlyâ€"inferred that the military has attempted to dam Project Tempo. I want to deny that allegation. I am a soldier. I follow orders. Once Project Tempo was approved, I gave it my wholehearted cooperation. The minutes of my staff conferences in connection with Tempo can be found as proof of this cooperation. “Howeve r, in all honesty, I must confess that from the beginning I considered Tempo to be a wild scheme. I imagine that with persistence, with the application of self-discipline and energy, we are going to achieve conquering space in accordance with the plan outlined by General Roamer sixteen years ago. First we must beef up our moon base. The moon is the stepping stone to Mars and Venus. Gentlemen, it is sound navy thought to consolidate your own space earlier than advancing further. Project Tempo put the cart a number of miles forward of the horse. The old ways are one of the best. The identified strategies are tried, and they will be true. “Is this time-jump theory something you'll be able to see, really feel, maintain on to? No. It is a theory. I personally do not consider that there's any variation. I assume time is a constant all through all the galaxies and all of the universe. Lane was a dreamer. I am a doer. You know my report. I do not want this fiasco to make you turn your bac ks on area flight. We want a vastly augmented moon base. From a moon base we are able to look down the throat of Pan-Asia. We must reinforce that base, and never dissipate our efforts in humoring the more lunatic fringe of our nation’s physicists. Thank you, gentlemen.” This manner of pondering is not unusual for a military character, someone who has been drilled within the uniform chain of command, in commonplace working procedures, and different certainties that may be relied on (we hope) within the quite uncertain surroundings of the battlefield. We can see why this guy needs to be certain about what he’s doing and what he ought to be doing, primarily based on that coaching, that military thoughts-set. This is just strengthened by the clearly absurd story our heroes are telling of in any other case unprovable alien intervention. The nature of the best way the aliens infiltrate seemingly random folks at unpredictable intervals without any outward signal makes their presence much more uncertain, a minimum of to the many people who haven’t skilled it for themselves. It’s straightforward for someone to be certain that there are no aliens, that the destruction of the starship was both an accident or human sabotage, particularly when the know-how behind the starship was still untested. As you’re building your characters, consider the diploma of certainty they may have in a particular component of the world, the plot, and the opposite characters. How does that assist and/or damage them? A want for certainty just like the soldier within the above instance reveals can damage, helping to forestall humanity’s spread into the celebs, unwittingly assisting an insidious external pressure, while on the similar time it isn’t essentially a nasty thought to maneuver into house with a bit more caution. Given the information obtainable to him, this man isn’t mistaken. But it’s his need for certainty, in large part at least, that’s holding him again from s eeing the larger picture. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Fill in your particulars below or click on an icon to log in: You are commenting utilizing your WordPress.com account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Google account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting utilizing your Twitter account. (Log Out/ Change) You are commenting using your Facebook account. (Log Out/ Change) Connecting to %s Notify me of recent comments via email. Notify me of recent posts via e mail. Enter your email handle to subscribe to Fantasy Author's Handbook and receive notifications of latest posts by e-mail. Join 4,779 other followers Sign me up! RSS - Posts RSS - Comments