An Integrated Motivation Theory
Researching the motivation psychology of the Greats

• Beginning with an Action Research Project into the Motivations of Life Coaches
• Expanding in content through a Literature Review of Two Outstanding Researchers into the Nature of Greatness
• And Concluding with a Vision Quest, to Think Things Through, Anew...

I: An Action Research Project
into the Motivations of Life-Coaches

The defining problem of change became immediately apparent through my first research project, within a Masters of Business course at Swinburne University, in Melbourne, Australia.

I began by undertaking a research project to better understand the purpose, the values, results and actions that motivate life coaches and what their experiences revealed, as working with clients. For this I facilitated a number of workshops with many high profile coaches from Melbourne, to review their experiences – i.e. what worked with clients and what didn’t, as well as exploring new possibilities for delivering coaching services for maximum effectiveness.

The accelerated growth of life-coaching over the last couple of decades, exemplifies what professor Abraham Maslow was foreseeing in the 60s and 70s: 'we have come to a point in biological history where we now are responsible for our own evolution. We have become self-evolvers. Evolution means selecting and therefore choosing and deciding, and this means valuing.'

The focus groups participated in group discussions and personal reflections in writing, with the goal of bringing about self-empowerment and greater awareness upon their own personal motivations and what they value.The key objective was to identify the critical matters upon which coaches can make a difference.

This led to a number of exciting new discoveries that went into improving the practices of many coaches. Most notably, it helped coaches to find their authentic motivation in their vocational choice. We looked at the focus on 'outward contribution' as key to effectiveness, - how when we ask ourselves the key question, 'What can I and no one else do which, if done really well, would make a real difference to society?’, we raise our standard of practice.

It was here also that we began to explore the dimension of making personal changes and the difficulties therein – whether making changes in one’s health patterns or career or relationships, both personally and in working with clients.

We looked at the multitude of opinions and options available that often detract from having a level of certainty, about which actions bring about the success we desire. Thus, we looked at the problem of an ever increasing quantity of materials and how the level of quality is suffering as ideas are packaged as mere 'economic goods' to be sold...

It was from these problems posed here, that I was shortly attracted to undertake a second research project:

II: A Literature Review of Two Outstanding Researchers
into the Nature of Greatness

His teachings are widely acknowledged as the foundation for more success stories than any other. Here are just 5 of his 'students' who had this to say about his ideas:

“Whatever success I may have attained I owe, entirely, to the application of your fundamental principles of the law of success.” William Wrigley (creator of the Wrigley gum company)
"I wish to express my appreciation of the splendid work you have done in the organization of this philosophy of law of success ... I am happy to have had the privilege of rendering you some slight measure of help in the organization of this splendid course of "common sense" philosophy." William Howard Taft (27th US President and 10th Chief Justice)
“I know that you that you are doing a world of good with your law of success . I would not care to set a monetary value on this training because it brings to the student qualities which cannot be measured by money, alone.” George Eastman (creator of Kodak camera and company)
"Any man who devotes that much time, must of necessity make discoveries of great value to others. I am deeply impressed by your interpretation of the 'Master Mind' principles which you have so clearly described" Woodrow Wilson (28th US President)
“By applying many of the laws of success philosophy, we have built a great chain of successful stores. I presume it would be no exaggeration of fact if I said that the Woolworth Building might be called a monument to the soundness of these principles.” Frank Woolworth (creator of Woolworth stores and company)

"Abraham Maslow's psychology work has been very influential in my life. He is the original pathfinder in the study of man's potential for greatness." Dr. Wayne Dyer (Leader of the Today's Self Help Movement)	"Since at least the time of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the 'good life' has been the subject of philosophical and religious inquiry. Today's positive psychologists have not invented the study of happiness, well being, or strengths, but Maslow's proposal that people strive to make the most of their potential in a process called self-actualization, founded this field." Dr. Martin Seligman (Leader of Today's Positive Psychology)	"Maslow's work had an enormous impact on me. I became an immediate convert -- Maslow's evidence is overwhelming. But to date very few people have paid much attention." Dr. Peter Drucker (Leader of Today's Management Theory)

The reason why these two were so appealing in researching, is because they followed a scientific method when developing their ideas. Although we tend to think this is a modern idea, this is in fact a timeless principle. It was articulated by Jesus for example in the statement, "judge a tree by its fruit" - which is to say, "you can deduct the cause of something, by being attentive to what effects it creates".

Being scientific is essentially about being as methodical as possible about how we link cause and effects - ensuring that through measurable experiments, we can obtain results we can all agree upon, and most important, that we can depend on and thus, build technologies upon. The effect of an airplane flying as such, is due to the realization of the causal laws of aerodynamics.

Subjective opinion is important in so far it searches out to discover these laws, but they ultimately need to be put to the test in the world, in the physical, to ensure reliability. Until then, it's just a hypothesis.

Of course, when it comes to measuring the exact causes behind the effect of living life at the highest level, living the good life, the great life - that's not so easy to measure. It essentially means evaluating the whole person: from their enormous expanse in time and form, into their mental realm, which lies mostly hidden.

In fact, this is arguably the hardest thing of all to measure, for it cannot be done merely with experimental observation, but with every faculty we have available. As such, many of the great works on the subject of leading the good life, still comes from direct personal experiences - i.e. on certain authors reflecting on their own journey to greatness, or upon observing others, or by engaging in the great philosophical debates.

But as I read through all this literature, these two authors began to fascinate me because they came as close to scientific realism as this form of inquiry allows. The authors derived their insights by tracing out common patterns between the ones that have achieved much with their lives, who lived life to the fullest and who made the most out of their potential.

Most interesting though, the authors seem to have mapped across different terrains, with slightly different criterions for who to observe. Hill evaluated primarily external achievement, while Maslow observed primarily internal achievement. One had a journalistic approach, another a psychological approach. One had economic+social center, another, a spiritual+individual center.

Together though, they represent the two major polarities of knowledge in the field. Together they create a complimentary, balanced whole - a Yin and a Yang.

If we were to superimpose their maps, together they would triangulate an even more accurate terrain into the nature of Greatness.

As such, I decided to to conduct a rigorous research across their findings, through an intensive literature review project.

Over two years, I coded, categorized and mind-mapped their conclusion - as to re-arrange this giant puzzle piece into an integrated model. Much of the content here comes from the insights discovered in this research.

III: A Vision Quest to Think Things Through, Anew

The third research applied on this project here, has been to go in the opposite direction - i.e. to detect principles from within. While the previous researches looked at a number of realizations as formulated by other coaches and by other researchers themselves - the third phase has been to take all this knowledge and turn it upon myself. I was to be the 'guinea pig' here, through a vision quest of 40 days in the wilderness of Tasmania.

A 'vision quest' as it is known, is a rite of passage where one goes deep into nature for extended periods of time, without human contact, with the intention of having a vision or a deep insight into things. This process of going away from customs, social relations, present stories and technologies as to experience oneself fundamentally - free from the constraints of everyday habits and past conditionings, and reconnect with life at its most raw and fundamental level - has been a timeless and universal practice for breakthrough thinking.

From Moses to Buddha, from to Jesus to Mohammed, to many other enlightened human beings in between - all used a formula of 40 day of solitary vision quests, as to come to higher self-realizations. Exactly why 40 days is the magic number is not exactly sure today, for these ideas had their origin in ancient astrology and observations into cycles of growth that are largely lost to us - but what is more important, is that it works.

If one engages in a process such as this - i.e. of continual immersion, with a set intention, within a process of introspection - this creates a fundamental shift in awareness: where you see things in a new light, and the things that were once hidden, are revealed. Simply put, you habituate a higher modality of thinking.

There is a story of a university professor going to visit a famous Zen master. While the master quietly served tea, the professor talked about Zen and kept talking and talking... The master poured the visitor's cup to the brim, and then kept pouring.

The professor watched the overflowing cup until he could no longer restrain himself. "It's overfull! No more will go in!" the professor blurted.

"You are like this cup," the master replied, "How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup."

Having completed the previous research projects, I was much like the professor - full to the brim and overflowing with information. Despite all these ideas, I was still faced with the problem of how to make all this knowledge applicable - as to holistically integrate all these principles of Greatness into one's character and make lasting positive changes as a result.

So I 'emptied my cup' and sought to refill my cup from the inside-out. In 2008 I conducted such a self-experiment, immersing myself for a period of 40 days in the Tasmanian wilderness (one of the world's most remote and pristinely natural places), with the intention of resolving this dilemma and helping others to make real changes.

Through solitary wilderness walks, meditation, prayer and writing, I spent my time going through the questions that have puzzled me over the last decade. On a couple of occasions I spent 24 hours in continuous meditation, on other days I'd go for walks from dusk till dawn just pondering on certain values and ideas, on other days I would just sit by my tent brainstorming and freely associating ideas ...

All in all, I filled out three exercise books of notes - reviewing, expanding and innovating upon the great ideas of personal development. I began to rethink the way that personal development ought to be done in our present times - to fill in the 'missing gaps'.

It is this vision quest that ultimately shapes this website and the ideas you're now reading...