As isdescribed in the picture, the mule is staring at the carrots, desperatelytempted by the food. Presumably this scene was laid in a village. A cart drivercapitalized the donkey's foible, dangling a carrot in front of the mule andholding a stick behind it. The donkey would move towards the carrot for thereward of food, while also moving away from the stick behind it to avoid thepunishment and pain. Thus the mule was drawing the cart all the time and thecart driver achieved his goal without paying too much. The donkey is vulnerableto the temptation of carrots, which determines the fate of the donkey's life.

Sometimesour human beings are like donkeys. We are also easily lured by benefits andinclined to escape the pains. This is the fate of our human being. No matter how hard we try, it is extremely difficult to get away from human nature.Nevertheless, we can expand the understanding of human nature to make thingswork. That is to say, we can properly take advantage of this natural humanpropensity to motivate us to achieve our goals and to avoid temptations. Thuswe can embrace a more reasonable and more perfect life.

Then,how to stimulate ourselves to pursue goals? Pretty much every motive we caninvent falls into one of two categories: something we want, or something we want to avoid. That is, the carrot or the stick.

Justlike the donkey believe that the stick will be always behind it, people arealso naturally programmed to believe threats or bad consequences. There is nodoubt that human beings are inclined to participate in negative self-talk.However, people can use this kind of human characteristic. For instance,on

one occasion, I was tired of doing the homework, because the steadyflow of the translation tasks crushed my mind and tortured my soul. But thereality is that I talked to myself that if I don't finish the assignments, Iwill be severely criticized by teachers and I will also get frustrated. Mysubconscious mind sent the message that something really bad will happen if Idon't complete the assignment. So I conquered aside all the obstacles anddifficulties to finish homework and to improve my translation skills. Thus,from this case, we can see that the "stick effect" can motivateeverybody to achieve something they want.

Threatsare the most powerful short-term motivator, while desire is the most powerfullong-term motivator. The threat of the stick can certainly keep us moving.However, it won't keep us going over the long haul. Focusing on what we desireprovides us with continuous motivation to work. For example, the NationalCollege Cross Border E-Commerce Contest has been going on for six months, and Iworked as the tutor, which took a lot of time and energy. Why was I willing tospend time on this contest? The greatest motivation is that this project is conductive to my profession career. This is what we called "carroteffect". It encourages people to achieve their goals.

In a word, the stick is easier, but thecarrot is more sustainable and more effective. We hold both the carrot and thestick. That is to say, it is up to ourselves that which one we will offer toourselves as a motive for action.

However,to achieve goals is much easier than to avoid temptations. We all know thathuman beings are always readily prone to fall into the temptations. There is a piece of age-old wisdom: moderation in all things. Also, as the old saying goes that "A little wind kindles, much puts out the fire." The wisdom ofthe ancients gives us edification that we should never be addicted totemptation and never be unable to extricate ourselves. Therefore, we shouldlearn to balance the relationship between the goals and temptations. Also, itis certain that we should never be enslaved by temptations.

So ifwe know how to beat the targets by using the "stick effect" and" carrot effect" and know how to balance the relationship betweengoals and temptations, we would live a more reasonable and more perfect life.