Were you dissed, or are you pissed?!
The other two motivators Bill O’Hanlon describes are dissed and pissed.
Dissed: this is when something terrible happens to you, or you suffer a difficult loss, and the emotional wound you suffer becomes a motivator. My favorite example is the story of Elizabeth and John Edwards (I posted about this a few weeks ago.) After their 16 year old son died in a car accident, they created the Wade Edwards Learning Lab in his memory at the high school he had attended. They used their wound to make a difference in the world. The tragedy they suffered became a powerful motivator.
Pissed: this is when you are so mad about something that you just can’t help but get involved and try to change it. One of the examples Bill O’Hanlon talks about is the filmmaker Michael Moore. Moore once told an interviewer that his big, unattractive face does not exactly belong on the big screen. But Moore makes his movies anyway because he is so furious about the problems he sees in the world. Another example is Martin Luther King, Jr., who saw the injustice of racism in this country and launched a movement to fight it.
Were you dissed? Are you pissed? These can be great motivators!
