The Fourth Pillar: The Mystery Behind What Drives All of Our Actions

We are all unique and different in so many ways, but this next principle is what unites all of us. Regardless of what religion you are, where you were born, your skin color, height, weight, or gender, this principle is the driving factor in all of us. It is the one thing that guides every decision we make, whether it’s done consciously or subconsciously.

This universal attribute is known as the Pleasure-Pain Principle. What the principle states is:

Everything we do is either to move toward 

things that make us feel good

or away from things that make us feel bad.

We’ll start with a very simple example of the principle, and then we’ll go into much deeper levels of how it applies to you and the choices you make. We all want happiness in our lives, so if we were hungry and saw a delicious, free sandwich, we would move toward it. Hunger makes us unhappy; therefore, a tasty sandwich would satiate us, and that would make us happy.

On the flip side, we all want to avoid things that make us feel bad (pain). If a crazy man wearing a hockey mask swinging a chainsaw were running in your direction, you would move away from him, right? I should hope so! No rocket science yet right?

Well, don’t worry, it doesn’t get that much more complicated. Every single one of us wants to feel good. It’s as basic as that. We take actions and make decisions because we hope they will bring us toward pleasure or away from pain. So our decision making process is based on what makes us feel good.

But the funny thing about it is we expect things to give us the most happiness. Where did we get that idea? Because you know what? All the things you want in life... you really don’t want them.

Could everything you thought you knew be wrong?

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.