Introduction
Are you looking in the right place for your motivation?
We’ve all had these feelings from time to time. It can be so frustrating to feel as Jimi Hendrix sang in Manic Depression, “I know what I want but I just don’t know – how to go about getting it”. Not that we are suffering from manic depression or any depression. But we can see where we need to be, but just lack the drive to get there. So, let’s talk about drive and motivation.
Why Motivation Is Important
So why is motivation important anyway? Well, without it, it is hard, if not impossible, to reach our goals or our organization’s goals. It is what allows us to work through tasks and projects when we have minor or major setbacks. An article in Reach Out Australia puts it this way, “Motivation is what drives you towards a goal, gets you up in the morning, and keeps you working through a task, determined to succeed when things get tough.”, That same article goes on to discuss two types of motivation:
- Positive motivations focus on the positive things that will happen when you take action. For example: ‘Finishing this assignment means I’m only a step away from being qualified.’
- Negative motivations focus on the negative backlash that will occur if you don’t take action. For example: ‘If I don’t finish this assignment in the next few hours, I’ll fail my course.’
Some people might call negative motivation coercion, which can definitely have a bad connotation. However, we all know that completing a task because we want to do it, as opposed to having to do it, makes the task so much easier. An old adage that I frequently repeat, ‘It is much better to be running toward something than to be running away from something’. That is, I’d much rather be moving toward rewarding and pleasant circumstances than trying to get away from unpleasant ones.
If we can harness our motivation, we can excel at and maybe even enjoy the task ahead of us, instead of dreading it and avoiding it. To get us started with, we can read motivational quotes. This gives us a bump in our motivation. But, does it really motivate us? In an article at Lifehack.com, the author discusses motivation as having multiple levels: Core, Support and Surface. Reading a motivational quote works with our surface level motivation. But to get to our real motivation, we have to go deeper.
In the model mentioned above, the second layer of motivation is the Support Level. The Support Level ties in with our goals. This level is also referred to as ‘The Enabler level’. These are positive enablers and can be friends and family members who can provide support and encouragement to help us attain our goals or do our best work. These encouragements provide a supportive environment that enables us to achieve and excel.
The last layer the article refers to is the Core. The Core ties into our purpose. Through reflection, meditation and positive self-talk, we can gain a deeper understanding of our purpose. With this understanding we can begin to truly harness the power of motivation. But first, let’s talk about those things that demotivate us.
What Steals Our Motivation
We encounter many things that can be considered demotivating. However, demotivation is more of a category of problems that we face and how we feel, in response, to those encounters (advise.theshineapp.com). As such, does demotivation have something to do with a failure on our part to fully commit to our own success? Some of these problems we face are listed below.
Fear. At the top of the list of things that take our motivation away is fear. Fear, as an emotion, is helpful when we are faced with dangerous unknowns and we need to protect ourselves. However, not many of us are hunter-gatherers these days. So, most of our fears are unfounded and constructed as stories we tell ourselves. The old acronym, False Evidence Appearing Real pretty much says it all.
The Wrong Goals. When we allow our goals to be set by external forces, like wanting to be liked or wanting to impress others, we are setting the wrong goals. Our goals should be in service to our deepest desires and purposes. Goals that drive us toward being the best version of someone else demotivate us by producing a dissonance between who we truly are and what we are driving toward.
Lack of Clarity. “When you haven’t consciously and clearly articulated what you want, your picture of your future will be vague” (advice.theshineapp.com). The sheer amount of information we deal with these days and the number of quick changes we must deal with can leave us feeling fatigued. When this happens, we can find ourselves in situations where there is a real lack of clarity on what’s next. That lack of clarity can sap our motivation.
Values Conflict. Our values are important to us. They are markers of who we really are. When we have tasks or projects ahead of us that don’t feed into those values or that are in direct conflict with those values, we cannot produce our best work. Consistently being unable to produce our best work can also sap our motivation, right when we must do the very work that doesn’t align to our values.
Lack of Autonomy. We all like to exercise a little control over our lives. For me, this becomes a problem, when there are a few things in my life that are out of control. If we cannot exercise any decision-making abilities, because everything we need to do has already been decided for us, we begin to question the value that we bring to the tasks at hand. This can be very demotivating and foster a sense of helplessness.
Lack of Challenge. If our challenges are too great or too small, this can be demotivating. When challenges are too great, fear can enter the picture. We might ask ourselves, “What have I gotten myself into?” When challenges are too small, we can become bored. There is a sweet spot between these two levels of challenge. Knowing how to discern this sweet spot for ourselves or for those we lead can make all the difference in the world.
Loneliness. This has become especially important in these days of the pandemic. For those of us who worked in offices, there was always the ability to stop into someone’s cubicle or office and get a quick answer to a question and then do a bit of socializing. Those days are gone for many of us – for now at least. We were made to be social animals and gain energy from our enablers at work. The lack of regular interaction can leave us feeling lethargic and demotivated.
Burnout. If we have been charging ahead every day and not taking diligent care of ourselves or taking time off work, we just may have used up all our energy and attention stores and now we need a break. Again, in these days of the pandemic, if we work from home, we have had to establish healthy boundaries around when to work. Because for many of us, where we work and where we live have become the same place. If we have not set these boundaries, we may just simply be burned out or on our way to burnout.
Conclusion
Motivation – How does it work for you? What zaps your motivation?
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