How to get (and stay) motivated.

 It is easy to use motivation as a catch all when discussing things like setting a goal, starting a new challenge or even being a part of a team. The idea of motivation is discussed often, the actual components of understanding motivation are not. Motivation takes on different forms and those different forms can serve different purposes. It is a lot more than a well-crafted poster on the wall reminding you to “hang in there”…

What is behind motivation

Motivation boils down to two key factors, external stimuli (like money or status) and internal stimuli (like goals and our passion). Extrinsic motivation relies on that external stimuli in order to get people to accomplish specific tasks or objectives. From a professional standpoint this could be a bonus, a change in title or if you still go into the office a parking spot closer to the door. When people think “motivation” and ways to keep individuals motivated, this is what generally comes to mind.

knowing extrinsic motivation

However, extrinsic motivation will only work to an extent. Once that original stimulus is no longer effective, the motivation loses power. It will require the stimulus to be increased to maintain that motivation. Once there are no more fancy titles to promote to or the $5 coffee gift cards begin to pile up in a desk drawer, we can find yourself in a bit of a pickle. From a personal perspective, someone might run 5k’s for that sweet finisher medal and free t-shirt (not to mention flexing on their friends who don’t). Once their closet is full of tees they wore once, and the finisher medals just collect dust in a box, the desire to keep spending Saturday mornings running with strangers seems way less appealing.

knowing intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation on the other hand is exactly as it implies; motivation that comes from within an individual. This is through accomplishing personal goals, or working on something they are especially passionate about or connected to. Often times, it is referred to as someone’s “why”. It is the reason they get out of bed in the morning and do the work they do. This is how we build our discipline to keep doing the necessary work in order to actually accomplish something great. From the professional standpoint, it could be working on a project or assignment that aligns to something we genuinely care about. From a personal standpoint, it could be running those 5k’s trying to qualify for a specific event, beating a personal best or even for a charitable cause, so we keep on running them.

Extrinsic motivation will get someone in the room but intrinsic motivation keeps them there.. the trick is tapping into that intrinsic motivation to keep working towards something once the external stimuli fades away. So how do we actually do it? How do we even begin to identify our “why”?

lean on the big three of sdt

Luckily, some psychologists already figured that out. We can use a behavioral psychology theory called Self Determination Theory (SDT). This theory describes how individuals actually can think through what genuinely motivates them in order to set goals, work to accomplish them and develop in the process. We can apply this theory to a wide range of areas in our life to understand what really drives us to do something great. There are three pillars of SDT which are competency, relatedness, and autonomy. Each one plays an important role in identifying and building intrinsic motivation.

Competency-

This is our strength in a specific area, task or skill. We are not just more capable of performing well when we are competent at something, but we are much more willing to do so. This also relates to our ability to learn something. The competency it takes to gain the necessary skills for us to be proficient at it. Think about the things you are bad at. Do you enjoy doing those activities? Do you even want to get better at them? We gain competency in things we actually enjoy doing, and (arguably more importantly) enjoy learning how to do better.

Relatedness-

This is where we get a bit deeper. Our relatedness is the connection we have to a specific area, subject or task. If our connection feels a deeper or there is more meaning to what it is, we will have a more personal reason to accomplish it and be a part of it in the first place. It’s this deeper connection, the fact we actually care about it, will help internally drive us to accomplish it.

Autonomy-

Putting it plainly, this is our ability to choose for ourselves. It is pretty common knowledge that we aren’t the biggest fans of being told what to do, and that ultimately, we to want to make choices for ourselves. So when we make the choice to be a part of something/do something (vs. being told we have to do it) we will work harder to accomplish it. It’s our decision. And when we make it that decision, we can feel the influence from outside sources on what decision to make. Whether it is friends or the newest social media trend, we can feel pressured into doing something that ultimately isn’t our choice. To really have autonomy, we have to try and quiet those outside influences which push us in one direction or another and make the choice ourselves.

If all three pillars of SDT are met, our intrinsic motivation is strong. Of course this is not always the case. Especially when it comes to the professional world, in which most of what we do falls within our job description. This is where we really need to think differently. We are not defined by one single activity or job task. As individuals, we are deep and complex, with a multitude of different attributes making us who we are. So while it would be great to apply this idea to every aspect of our lives, the reality is we can’t (darn job description). The benefit? We can choose to apply it to the aspects of our life that are, in fact, well within our control. If we allocate some time to build that intrinsic motivation and have accomplishments in other aspects of our life (and with it, a modicum of fulfillment) we will feel more inclined to put in the work to accomplish those things that get tasked out to us (like within our professional role). It is a balance, with the intent that we will work towards aligning more aspects of our lives to tasks and activities that we do care about and want to work towards. Knowing that when we do get that task in which we don’t have a tremendous amount of intrinsic motivation to complete, we understand it is momentary and we have plenty of other areas that fulfill us and we can work towards later.