Activating and Increasing Self-Motivation – Part 1

“The Best Motivation is Self-Motivation.”
– Jim Rohn

There are some days (more days than I like) that I feel a lack of motivation to do things.  I would stone in front of the TV, or computer, or just plan staring out into blank space.  Perhaps I’m in the special nothing-box that the male species has.  Regardless of what I call it, I know there are times when I could definitely do with more motivation.

Here are some of my personal tips in increasing self-motivation.  (Using some of the tips right now to complete writing my post)

Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation

There are generally two key types of motivations:

• Extrinsic motivation occurs when we are motivated to perform a behavior or engage in an activity to earn a reward or avoid punishment.
• Intrinsic motivation involves engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding; essentially, performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward.

Studies have shown that intrinsic motivation will decrease over time if extrinsic incentives are introduced for behaviors that an individual already found motivating, this is known as the over-justification effect.

In my experience, extrinsic motivation tends to diminish over time, or generally needs to be increased to maintain its same effect. That’s one reason why the motivation from a salary increase only lasts so long for a disengaged employee.

A better way is to tap into intrinsic motivation, and here are some ways to identify intrinsic motivation:

• Purpose – What creates purpose and meaning for you?
• Passion – What are you passionate about?
• Strengths – What are you naturally good at?

In exploring Strengths, the StrengthsFinder tool is extremely versatile in identifying what will fire you up.  Embedded within the 34 Talent Themes are what you naturally love to do.

Using StrengthsFinder to Increase Motivation

I was coaching a young entrepreneur using StrengthsFinder, let’s call him Mark for the purpose of illustration.   Mark is young and talent web designer who has form a small team to create web solutions for others.  His Signature Talent Themes are: Futuristic, Self-Assurance, Restorative, Relator & Learner.

In the process of our coaching conversation, we explored areas where Mark could leverage on his talents to increase performance.

Alex:  So Mark, what are some challenges that you would like to improve on?
Mark: I don’t really have any, if I see any problems, I would have addressed them immediately.  (Can you see Restorative at work here?)
Alex: Cool, so would you say everything is perfect with your work?
Mark: Oh, I wouldn’t say perfect, there are definitely areas that can be better.
Alex: Could you give me an example?
Mark: One thing that I really don’t like to do is customer reports.  They are dry and boring.
Alex: How are you managing that task right now?
Mark: I give it to one of my team members to do this, so I don’t have to.  But he’s entering National Service which means I will have no choice but to do it myself soon.
Alex: Interesting, please take a look at your top 5 talent themes and tell me how might you use your talents in doing your customer reports?
Mark: (Pauses to think)  I think I can use Learner to learn about new ways of doing the report, and use Futuristic to create a report using geometrical shapes to make the report more interesting.  This will also differentiate my report from other reports that people give and make me stand out!  (Speech increasing in pace and volume)
Alex: Wonderful!  Now as you think about your level of motivation in doing these reports, how would you rate it on a scale of 1-10 before and after thinking about using your talents?
Mark: Before it was about a 3, and now it is about a 7.

And the conversation continues as we explored how to increase that motivation level, and practical action steps to take.   The point of this illustration here is how easily and powerfully we can increase our motivation in doing something when we leverage on our natural talents in doing so.

Application

Here are some questions to consider to increase your motivation level

1. How does what I do support my personal mission?  How it is meaningful to me?
2. What am I passionate about?  How can I bring that into what I’m doing?
3. How can I use more of my talents in what I’m doing?  What does each of my talent themes love and how can I do that more?

References:

1. Differences Between Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation