Yesterday I integrated the feedback mechanisms that tie the aggressive drive, generative drive and pleasure drives together. We saw that while pleasure and agency can reinforce generative behaviour, both have a ‘short-circuit’-loop that can promote domineering or pleasure-seeking behaviour.
One important element (probably amongst some others that I missed) is that of resources. Resources can include actual resources, like paper, a platform to distribute a message, a network, someone doing a task for you, etc. but also inner resources, such as focus, energy, mental bandwidth…
All our behaviours require some of these resources, which in the diagram below is illustrated as a stock, rather than a variable. A stock signifies the accumulated amount or level of a resource at a specific moment, whereas a variable refers to any quantity within a system that can vary or be altered, without necessarily accumulating over time.
Anything related to resources in the model I have marked blue to keep the model somehow organised.
The behaviour can then lead to an increase in resources, i.e. opening the ‘valve’ that grows the resource stock. Think of the energy you might gain from an evening nap, or focus from going for a run.
I already said that all our behaviour requires resources, but that does not always means that the resource is consumed. To take the example of a nap again, the bed (resource) is not consumed but necessary. Time, however, is a resource that is lost.
To summarise: aggressive, pleasure-seeking, and generative behaviour all require resources, consume resources, and add resources to our resource stock. However, the kind of resource is rarely the same.
In the next post, I sill show how this model can help you to be more generative, both from a personal and professional point-of-view.
Next: How to be more productive by enabling your generative drive
