[ostso]

That seems like a fairly cliché series of dichotomies. Life isn't black and white; if choices were always this clear-cut then they wouldn't be hard.

[yewweitan]

Agreed. But motivation seems to be pretty black and white (you're either making it happen or not), at least in the short term, and cliches (or rather, heuristics) are the best way to keep the motivation revving.

[paraschopra]

Yes, but you need extremes in order to sift through shades of grey.