Suffering, if motivational, is actually desirable?
what the Buddhists get wrong
So according to the Buddha life is all suffering, blah blah blah, but I kind of disagree. Certainly there were some stages in my life in which I had zero suffering, zero thoughts on my mind, zero problems, and issues… And while pretty fantastic, a bit empty, it’s actually not the desired and goal, I think the desire and goal is to simply be innovative, creative, motivated, to build, and make new things.
complacency is the only thing to avoid
I’ve been thinking a lot about life and time, the general idea is that time is the only truly valuate resource that we go on the planet because… Time slips away from your fingers so quickly. Your kids grow up so quickly, the days pass quickly, and think about how much time we devote to our jobs are occupations or whatever, or even our mind space towards certain things, which might end up seeming to be insignificant in the long run?
motivated for what?
So interesting thought is a god doesn’t require motivation, he or she simply does. A god doesn’t need motivation in order to do something, perhaps a god IS motivation. And when I speak about god, it is not with a capital G, I’m thinking kind of more of the pagan Roman Greek gods. 
There are certain things that you just do
Some of us call it “autotelic”, but maybe a simpler way to think about it is… We simply do it for the sake of doing it, we do it because we enjoy it, we simply do it because it is part of our being? And I also even wonder… We almost don’t do it necessarily to be “happy,” or even something we don’t think about, almost like breathing?
For me making photos is the same, I don’t really think about it. I see something, and there is this inner urge or compellation to shoot it. I tried to compose it well, and also get the exposure, right, and the right angle… But it’s not for the sake of getting likes on social media because I don’t use social media anymore, but rather, it’s kind of like my creative play thing, which is also part of my soul and being?
things that you do that don’t bring your joy, but you do anyways?
This is a very interesting idea, the idea of certain things that we do, for the sake of doing it, not because we are forced to do it, or must do it, but simply we do it? 
There is a certain feedback loop I think which motivates us to do certain things like, there is a desire of reward, perhaps some sort of hormonal uplift, and then the pattern is repeated. But how about… There’s a certain desire or thing that you want to do or acquire, you do it, it doesn’t give you that dopamine or serotonin hit, but for some reason, you keep doing it? I almost wonder if that’s a more honest way of approaching things?
It’s kind of like photography, I remember back in the day when I would make what I thought was a really really great photograph and I would get super excited to upload it and get a bunch of likes or whatever, but now, because I don’t upload my photos to social media, when I make a photo that I am pleased with, there’s more of like sort of inner joy or excitement that I have to review it for myself later, but not for the sake of getting some sort of external like from some other entity but simply from myself?
Gains without the joy?
I almost wonder if investing and trading is like the same thing, in which… There’s a typical thought that when you get gains, it gives you a hormonal uplift, but, assuming you trade and invest for a living or as a passion, or some sort of autotelic thing, if you get a bunch of gains, and you don’t feel anything whether good or bad… Maybe that apathetic state is actually a good thing? that you are not motivated simply by the hormonal rush, but rather something else? And that might be more rational and more intelligent?
The Stoics saw apathy as a virtue, apatheia–> The general idea is to not be too joyful when things are good, but simply to not also get two down when things are down. I mean for the most part, certainly Joy is a virtue, to feel joyful, get joy from things and people in society around you is a good thing! And I think most people what they desire is to feel joyful all the time, 24 seven, all the waking moments, and also feeling joyful and grateful before they sleep?
I’m probably one of the most joyful and cheerful persons that I know, but even when things are ideal and optimal, it’s physically impossible to be joyful, 100% of the time, and also… Assuming you want to augment your feeling of joy, even greater, ever higher… You probably need some sort of antipode, or the exact opposite of Joy, in order to maximize the high that you get from Joy?
For example, if you eat three square meals a day, never feel hunger, never fasted, or felt true hunger, the joy or the dopamine that you get from eating food is probably not that much. But assuming that you fasted for a week, and finally was able to save her the taste of food, the Joy that would bring you is probably multiplied by 1000.
Also, the interesting thought is, I think that people who typically undergo really, really deep depression, tend to actually be people who have not suffered that much adversity in their lives, or early on in their lives. This is why I think a lot of kids from wealthy families, often tend to suffer from depression and all these other bad feelings even more so than kids who grew up in a tough background?
It’s almost like can you imagine being a boxing fighter who has never been knocked out or punched in the face before? Certainly you would be a lot more fragile than a season boxer has gotten punched and knocked out a lot, but was able to keep getting up 100 times.
legacy
Typically, when we think about the heroes narrative, certainly there must be some sort of grand adversity, or downside that the hero experiences, and then overcomes like Odysseus in the Odyssey, John Wick, in the John Wick series, or the humiliation and tragedy of Achilles. In fact, the tragic heroes are often the most glorified because, our admiration for them, being able to conquer adversity, and as a result, become stronger from it?
Like can you imagine watching a superhero film in which the protagonist has never suffered any tragedy or downside or trauma, it would probably be a pretty boring movie. And I also think that with us humans, it doesn’t matter how rich powerful or successful you are, each, and every single one of us on the planet has probably experienced at least 123 extremely terrible tragedies in our lifetimes? And also… The really successful people at the top, have probably experience maybe at least 20 really really deep tragedies in injuries and terrible things?
Like for example, Elon Musk, has probably suffered at least 12 tragedies in each of the successful companies that he built. Perhaps on the road to extreme success at the pinnacle… You must also stomach more tragedy?