Motivation - Internal and Theory Perspective

Motivation is a word that I hear regularly coming up with my clients in coaching sessions and even within my own peer circle.  A lot of people I have spoken to feel lost, stuck or disillusioned within a job they are currently working in or are lacking a meaningful purpose to their life. It sucks. I have been there. I have worked in jobs that were so boring and unfulfilling. It is mentally draining and exhausting putting energy into something you have no passion for. At times, I felt wandering around aimlessly not knowing what I wanted to work towards and achieve with my life. How can someone become more motivated? For me, motivation can only arise when you choose what you want and are clear in why you are doing it. Sounds easy. The difficulty is getting started. I will share some tips from a coaching perspective and theories that might help you to discover or rediscover your motivation.

Motivation can be defined as ‘a reason for acting or behaving in a particular way to get something we want’. Why does motivation matter? Motivation can provide us with a goal, allow us to feel better within ourselves, work towards achievement and helps to overcome struggles. Have you asked yourself: What does motivation mean to me? It is worth thinking about and to know what motivation means to you.

First, it is important to do the personal development work by asking internal questions and by doing this you will understand yourself more which will help with your motivation. The question ‘Who am I?’, you might never have been asked this before by anyone or you might not have asked this about yourself. It is not the easiest question to answer as it requires self-reflection and solitude to understand your own thoughts, how you feel and mindset. To answer the ‘Who Am I?’ start looking at your own values, beliefs, passions, principles, know your interests and hobbies. When you are clear on these, the ‘Who am I?’ becomes easier to answer. You can then move onto the ‘what’ and ‘why’ for your motivation.

Questions around motivation to look at for the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ can be the following:

- Why do I want to do this?

- What is my purpose?

- What are my motives?

- What do I want to achieve?

It is also important to look at the ‘How’ for your motivation. A question you can ask yourself is ‘How will I motivate myself?’. I will explain this more later under setting goals.

Another important step for motivation is to be able to identify your core values. Your values will help you clarify what is most important in your life and what is not important. Your values help bring purpose, meaning, fulfilment and reward to your life. Knowing your values will help make decision making easier since you know what you desire. Most people would have between 3-5 core values. It is worth the time to clarify your values as it will help make it easier to find the work you are meant to pursue. Your core values will show in your motivation.

Another way to help get motivated is to look at your key skills and strengths. You can look at all the jobs you have had to date. This can be part-time or full-time roles. List the roles, responsibilities, tasks you carried out, the skills you gained, the people you reported to and the people who reported to you. You can also look at all the qualifications and training you have done to date for your education. A qualification can include a degree, masters or a diploma from university. You might have done a course or a workshop that helped you gain a new skill. You might have had training in marketing, sales, assertiveness communication, presenting or bookkeeping. All the training and qualifications will show your strengths and skills. It is a lot easier to motivate yourself when you are using your talents.

Your achievements and awards can be good inspiration for regaining motivation as this serves as a reminder of your accomplishments. It can be academic like writing a thesis or publishing an article. Teamwork and group projects, your contribution and participation in what made the outcome a success. Volunteer work, this can be within your local community, organisation or charity. Did you receive an individual or team award? This could be in sport, drama, music, athletics, public speaking, writing or art.

Setting goals help to provide focus and motivation. Having goals brings more clarity to our lives and an aim to work towards. Always write your goals down if it a short or long-term. Having them written you are more likely to achieve your goals. Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People states “Start with the End in Mind”. You should know what the result of your goal is. Write out a plan with the steps that you will take and a timeframe for achieving your goal. The GROW or SMART model can be used to set goals and help guide you with your motivation for achievement.  

For motivation in terms for learning, it is important to identify your preferred learning style. There are three different learning styles which are visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (VAK). 

1) Visual learning is seeing and reading. Learning visually can be through pictures, graphs, articles, powerpoint, illustrations and videos.

2) Auditory learning is listening and speaking. Auditory learning can be through podcasts, group discussions, presentations, videos and one-on-one or group conversations.

3) Kinaesthetic learning is touching and doing. Kinaesthetic learning can be through doing hand on activities, role-playing, walking meetings and note-taking.

It is worth the time considering your preferred style of learning so you can reach your motivation potential in developing your knowledge and skillset.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a motivational theory by Abraham Maslow. The theory suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving onto more advanced needs. It is shaped as a pyramid like the above image where the personal basic needs are at the bottom such as physiological and safety needs and then progress to the more advanced needs such as relationships, esteem and self-actualisation. The description is given for each need. Self-actualisation is the peak for motivation as a person is self-aware, concerned with personal growth and interested in fulfilling their own potential. It is important to note that the text on the left describes the basic and advanced needs for the workplace. The pyramid itself represents the personal basic and advanced needs.

Herzberg’s Motivators and Hygiene Factors by Fredrick Herzberg outlines motivating factors for job satisfaction and the factors for job dissatisfaction which can be seen from the image above. I don’t have much to add to the theory as the points are made clear for both motivator and hygiene factors. Just make sure your motives are internal rather than external when looking at what achievement, recognition, work itself and personal growth means to you.

I do hope this this has provided some useful insight in finding ways to be more motivated and understanding what we need to do for us to be more motivated.