hygiene and motivation factors

absence of hygiene factors

oxygen, water, food, money, sex…

These are all hygiene factors and they all have their time factor. How many seconds or minutes or days you can survive without them?

Oxygen is the absolute extreme and hence it can help us understand the dynamics of the hygiene factors.

If you are running short of oxygen, everything else becomes secondary. There is only one objective. Otherwise, you die. In minutes, if not seconds. There is no dilemma, no second-guessing here.

There are some survival hygiene factors without which you’re most like to die or at least become extremely weak. Oxygen, water, food, sleep might come in this category.

Then there are factors that cause pain in their absence or make our work more difficult. A good computer, a proper wifi connection, a comfortable chair, no noise environment.

Money is one factor that can help us in controlling a lot of other hygiene factors. And hence, a consistent flow of money can take away these pains.

The hygiene factors are finite in nature. Once you have enough oxygen, more oxygen does not do you much good.

presence of motivation factors…

Creativity, love, belonging, passion, friendship, excellence, ambition, joy.

The motivation factors are infinite. You can always be more creative, more courageous, more loving.

The misery comes from thinking that if we do not have enough hygiene factors, then we can’t indulge in the motivation factors.

As Victor Frankl illustrated in his seminal book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, we can experience love even in the harshest of conditions, even when every shred of hygiene factor has been taken away from us.

In our role as a creative, we keep thriving through the motivation factors while making sure that the survival factors or hygiene factors are in place. This is the balance that we have to maintain.

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