Motivation: A Guide to Master it (Like a Boss)

What is motivation? When you think about it, can anyone give an exact answer to it? The textbook definition would be “the reason one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.” Another definition would be, “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.” But in today’s time, motivation has become a complex tool to adopt into our lives.

It was easy for our previous generations to motivate themselves because it was required for their survival. Which was satisfying their hunger, thirst, safety, and occasional love needs. But since we live in a society that doesn’t require that much effort to attain those goals, we thrive for greater purposes. Those are normally boosting our self esteem and self-actualization needs. We have so much abundance in our lives that it’s extremely difficult to determine what we want.

The path to motivating yourself starts by remembering your past experiences and the two types of motivations you’re familiar with. The first is fulfilling your natural hunger for success that’s achieved by mastering your skills, creating self-discipline, and receiving rewards. The second type of motivation is thriving to receive the basic needs in life and settling from there. After receiving a house, a car, and a spouse, they lose their hunger to fly further into the sky and continue living a comfortable life.

Both lifestyles sound tempting to go after because on one side, a carefree life is simple and easy to do. You never have to worry about failing and your life is pretty much set on blueprint. However, the back of your mind will always have that need for excelling and making a real difference in the world.

So what is the source of motivation

Though motivation can come to you during adulthood (such as finding income to feed your family or deciding to go back to school), what predetermines your level of motivation comes from your childhood. If you had parents who constantly praised and rewarded you for your success, you tend to do better in school and later on in life.

However, such as the counterpart, if your parents continuously neglected you without acknowledging your achievements, the average child tends to lose the will of motivation. Our childhood usually manipulates our future and creates our personalities. If we associate positive feelings with success, we work harder to continue receiving those emotions.

However, without the experience of knowing how it feels to be successful, people don’t find it that fulfilling. It’ll almost be like telling someone how amazing ice cream taste when they never had it before.

How can I get motivated if I have no interest in anything?

As complex as that sounds, it does pop inside our heads. We want to be successful like the people we see around us. The only problem is lacking the motivation to get there. We struggle cultivating our thinking pattern to work harder and achieve more. Based on our psychological needs, the two biggest factors that pushes us towards motivation are:

Intrinsic Motivation:

This is motivating yourself for the sake of improving your abilities with interest, enjoyment, or challenging yourself. You’re not entirely concerned with rewards or consequences. You’re only doing this for yourself and nothing more. An example would be trying a new hobby due to curiosity, reading subjects you’re interested in, or motivating yourself to exercise.

and

Extrinsic Motivation:

This is when we motivate ourselves to seek after external rewards or to avoid punishments. For example, their motivation might be to get more money, obtaining a prize of some sorts, or avoiding a prison sentence. Rather than doing something for yourself, you work towards an external goal.

To motivate ourselves to do anything productive, recall your recent experiences with it. We all had moments where we used both types of motivations to get something done. So remember the type of motivation you feel most comfortable with. Remember the time you were motivated to get something done and was amazing at doing so.

Maybe you felt pressured to complete a homework assignment before it was due the next day to avoid getting a bad grade. Or maybe you decided to workout and lose that extra twenty pounds you picked up last summer. Most people are usually motivated to work harder at work to receive a promotion and get more money. These types of motivations are known as being extrinsically motivated.

When we’re intrinsically motivated, we thrive at bettering ourselves not for a reward, but for our own needs instead. For example, someone might become interested in programming because they want to create their own software. I get motivated reading psychology and self- help books because I have a general interest in them. Rather than seeking an external reward, intrinsically motivation fulfills your desires to feel competent.

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

To determine which type of motivation is best for us, start by being honest with yourself. Naturally, we want to receive more money, recognition, or power. However, we also want to get there in a fun and relaxing manner. (Who wants to work super hard at something they clearly don’t enjoy?) It’ll be like working as a famous butcher even though you’re a devoted vegan. The promise of rewards, money, and power could only motivate you for so long before your productivity starts to diminish.

What I discovered was that rather than solely using intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, it’s best to use them both simultaneously. (Shocking, right?) Some would argue that this approach is conflicting in itself because it’s impossible to work out of pure interest while thriving to achieve a reward as a result.

But let’s think about a sport athlete lifestyle. People who play football or basketball started playing it because they originally enjoyed it. Then, over the years as they built their skills to become good at it, they got drafted to play as professionals.

From there, they generally play the sport because they love it, but now get paid for it. A basketball player can’t discipline himself to be the best if all he’s aiming for is to become rich.

Combining both types of motivations is doing something you enjoy that has the potential of producing a promising income. And in today’s time, it’s possible to do something we’re interested in and making an income from it.

Unless it’s complaining. I don’t know if there’s a career in only complaining to people. But if people are making a living by doing pranks, eating weird foods from across the world, or showing people how to put on makeup, your interest is very possible.

Now that we have a better understanding about motivation, let’s pinpoint how to apply it into your life.

Step 1: Discover your Interest

Think of a general topic you’re interested in. And don’t be specific about it. Let’s say one of your goals is to write a book. Don’t list the topic, ‘writing a book.’ Instead, put down ‘writing‘ or ‘sharing your thoughts with the world.’ You could narrow your goals later, but for now, settle for the main areas you’re interested in. Maybe you like reading.

List that down (I’ll explain later). Or maybe you like to cook, do karate, study science, or learn programming. The interest you pick will be the seed you need to plant. Here’s a few examples of interests you could use if you’re still searching for ideas:

Collecting random things

Studying Space

Dancing

Cooking

Hiking

Exercising

Music

Sports

Designing

If you still want more career options, lifehackers provides an interesting article.

Step 2: Dig deeper into that interest

Once you have a list of general interests, dig deep in each of them. Determine what naturally attracts you the most. It’ll be like playing The Bachelor, but instead of choosing between beautiful women, you’ll be choosing your interests.

If you like reading, maybe you’d like to become an editor or book reviewer. Or if drawing was on your list, you can choose comic book artist, tattoo artist, or designer. If you like exercising, perhaps you’ll enjoy being a personal trainer. And don’t choose only 1 interest either. You should have several choices because we all have multiple interests.

Step 3: Combine those interests into something bigger (Let’s use Science!)

Start experimenting like a scientist. Combine your interests together and create a career. Maybe you like reading and writing. Combine them together and a good career choice is writing novels or book reviews. Or maybe you like writing and cooking. This opens the path to write a best selling recipe book.

If you’re only interested in video games, watching movies, and eating junk foods, maybe it’s time to pickup a camera and record your opinions. Chances are if you’re interested in something, there’s over 100,000 other people who like it as well (whether they openly admit it or not.)

As awesome as it is to be a master over one thing, I’d rather be a jack of all trades because I love combining them into something amazing. I don’t need to know the complete guide to programming software. All I need to know is the basics on how to get from point A to point B. If necessary, I’ll study more topics about it to reach a goal, but until then, I’ll build my skills in other areas such as design or another language.

Step 4: Attend to your Motives

This is normally the part we struggle with after finding something we’re interested in. When we’re approached with challenges and obstacles, it’s tempting to back away from them. So to fix this repetitive pattern, create a motive and attend to it. (Like a sweet little puppy someone randomly gave you one day for no apparent reason.) But everyone’s a little different and see motivation in a different light.

If you value your accomplishments, you need to challenge yourself. Writing my book gave me a proud feeling after completing every chapter. Each chapter was an open exhibit of what I accomplished and could brag about to myself. But that feeling only lasted for so long before it became old news.

So I pushed myself to write more and more chapters to continue my bragging rights. This is how people spend all day playing video games, whether it’s on a console or mobile. Humans love viewing their own achievements in all shapes and forms.

However, if you’re more interested in recognition, start sharing your achievements with others. We sometimes need that external boost of motivation to keep us going. So whenever you learn something new or made improvements, tell someone about it. Let them marvel at your developments.

The look of amazement on their face should trigger a positive response from within you. This is how the coaching program works. Rather than working hard at something alone, you have other people acknowledging your progress and encouraging you to continue on.

Step 5: Set Specific (But challenging) goals

Give yourself a goal that isn’t too easy, or else you’ll lose interest. But don’t give yourself an impossible goal that’ll make you want to throw it in the trash. Set reasonable goals that’ll let you grow as a person.

A problem I faced before I started running was wishing I could run several miles like my friends. So instead of going by my natural pace and building up from there, I exhausted myself by attempting to run 3 miles on my first attempt. That didn’t end so well, and discouraged me until I realized I had to discipline myself before reaching that level.

Occasionally think of the end result, but don’t concentrate on it daily. It’ll only tire your mind after reaching the realization that you’re nowhere near it. Focus on short and attainable goals that’ll build the empire you want. You will reach your dreams with a balance of patience and motivation.

In final thoughts…

The way we find our motivation is up to us, but the same rules apply to whatever you choose. Rather than seeking after a reward or solely doing something for yourself, combine a list of interests to create a masterpiece.