74 Leading with NLP
So unless you are really motivated, inertia may kick in. This
may happen for two reasons. First, you don’t care one way or
the other; the proposal hasn’t set your bells ringing and
lights flashing, so it’s easier to sit tight. You don’t step back,
but you do not put your hand up either. Second, you are
caught between two values. You have a good reason to move,
but also an equally good reason for staying put. Result –
nothing happens. But then – horror! You are in a double
bind because no choice means no movement and that was
one of the two alternatives.
Another friend of mine, who worked for a pharmaceuti-
cals firm in India, got an offer from a firm in Rawalpindi
who wanted to hire him as a consultant. They claimed to be
affiliated with a United States based consultancy firm, but
my friend was not sure exactly what ‘affiliated’ meant in
practice. The contract involved a two-year bond, with four
months’ initial training, after which they offered him a 25
per cent rise on his present salary. He was torn – safety first
or off into the unknown? He found out as much as he could
about the new offer, but it was still hard to make up his mind
because the choices were so different. How to balance risk
against salary? In the end, he fell back on his personal vision
- both his present job and the new offer were steps on the
way to what he wanted from his professional life. Moving was
risky and it did not bring him any closer to where he wanted
to go. So he stayed put.
What appears as ‘motivation’ is not a simple push in one
direction. Our actions may take us in one direction, but they
are more like the current of a turbulent river – the outcome
of many different eddies and cross currents, as well as the
hidden rocks and weeds in the river. The current does sweep
in one direction but it is the result of all the different forces
working for and against each other. Sometimes the cross cur-
rents all support the sweep in one direction. Other times the
stream meanders along sluggishly or the water stays still and
brackish on the top although there may be currents in the
deep waiting for the right conditions to come to the surface.