Motivation_From How To Lifehack Jump to: navigation, search Contents [hide] 1 What is Motivation?

2 Failures to Motivate 3 Theories of Motivation 3.1 Theory One: Intrinsic Task Motivation 3.2 Theory Two: Goal Oriented Motivation 3.3 Theory Three: Principle Oriented Motivation 3.4 Theory Four: Associated Motivation 4 Subsections [edit] What is Motivation? Motivation has two components. The most obvious is the emotional feeling people describe as, feeling motivated. This is the mood people are in when they say, I fel t motivated to help out, and the emotion people lack if they say, I just didn t feel like doing it. Although the emotion is a crucial part of motivation it isn t the w hole story. The second component of motivation comes from the root word of motivation, motiv e. Your motive is the object or action that is creating the emotional state. As a human organism, your body will try to conserve frivolous wastes of energy. The refore, in order to do something that requires any effort, you require a guiding reason. [edit] Failures to Motivate A failure to motivate causes a number of problems. In the short-term it is usual ly called procrastination or a lack of willpower. Over the long-term a failure to motivate is usually described as laziness or lacking ambition. There are a numbe r of reasons that motivation can fail. Lack of Energy - You can t drive a car without fuel. You can t be driven without ene rgy. If you are sick, it is difficult to do the things you want to do. Similarly , it can be difficult to work if you are drained or stressed. Low Confidence - Y ou might really desire something but be resigned to believe it is impossible or outside your grasp. A lack of confidence can make it difficult to motivate yours elf. Vague Desires - Your motives may not be clear enough. If you don t have a cle ar reason for performing a task, your body will try to stop you wasting energy o n it. Short-Term Pain - Even if your goal is clear, you have confidence and ener gy, if the upcoming task will be particularly unpleasant, your body may decide i t isn t worth the risk. Mind numbing tasks, getting up in front of an audience or asking someone on a date all represent some risk of pain. Fear can stop motivati on. Internal Conflict - Two opposing motives cancel each other out. It is diffic ult to force yourself do anything that part of your body resists. If you have et hical qualms about a certain action, you might resist implementing it. You may r esist working towards a promotion if you really want to run your own business. [edit] Theories of Motivation The ability to motivate yourself is crucial if you want to accomplish anything. When the initial enthusiasm wears off, it can take a bit of skill to reignite th at motivation. Luckily there are many ways you can motivate yourself if you are in a slump. In reviewing many different philosophies on motivation and my personal experienc e, I ve found four underlying theories of motivation. There is often fairly heated assertions that one theory is superior to another, but generally the four theor ies aren t in conflict. I d suggest using all four theories when trying to motivate

yourself and deciding which best suits your needs. [edit] Theory One: Intrinsic Task Motivation The first theory of motivation is intrinsic task motivation. This form of goalle ss motivation proposes that your motives should be directed towards the task its elf and not the end result. With intrinsic task motivation, you attempt to motiv ate yourself by focusing on the task itself, not any result or outcome. Intrinsic task motivation is frequently used by many creative people. With this theory of motivation you aim to adjust your tasks or your perceptions of them so that they engage and motivate you. Although this theory requires some creativit y and skill, it can be a way of avoiding the pain that can be caused by self-mot ivation. If you had to mop your floors, intrinsic task motivation would suggest you chang e your perceptions of mopping or the act itself to make it engaging. Here you wo uldn t use the goal of a mopped floor but the act of mopping to motivate you. A co uple suggestions might be to focus on the flow of water over the floor or to mak e the mopping a game or challenge to be experienced. [edit] Theory Two: Goal Oriented Motivation Probably the most common theory of motivation is goal oriented motivation. This is where you use a goal or objective to encourage action. If the goal is intense ly appealing, you are using it as a magnet to pull you through less appealing ta sks towards it. Goal orientation is frequently used in professional settings. tation is both simple and consistent, it is a useful tool for st way to use goal orientation is to make your objective both nd desirable. Unclear goals dissipate motivation. Unrealistic onfidence. Less desirable goals lack the power to motivate. Because goal orien motivation. The be clear, realistic a goals create low-c

Following our mopping example, goal oriented motivation would suggest that you c an motivate by focusing on the mopped floor. Visualizing a specific picture of e xactly how a mopped floor will look (clear), determining the simple steps necess ary to having a mopped floor (realistic) and describing the benefits of a mopped floor (desirable) would create motivation. [edit] Theory Three: Principle Oriented Motivation Another form of motivation is principle oriented motivation. This is where you a re motivated by personal principles of how you should act. By using your own per sonal standards you can create motivation simply by the desire to uphold them. Principle oriented motivation works well when you already have strong principles you can use as motivating factors. Unlike intrinsic task or goal oriented motiv ation, principle oriented motivation takes time to establish as you develop pers onal standards that you wish to remain unbroken. These standards could be duty, service, truth, logic, love, compassion or morality. Motivating to mop could start by focusing you on your standard of organization o r cleanliness that you want to uphold. [edit] Theory Four: Associated Motivation A final and more recent theory of motivation is associated motivation. This theo ry is peculiar in that it doesn t use a motive to create the feeling of motivation at all. Instead, you motivate yourself through matching your environment, commu nication and thought patterns with when you are motivated. This triggers the fee lings of motivation and creates action. Tony Robbins and the developers of NLP h as been a chief proponent of using associated motivation.

To motivate using associated motivation for your mopping you might listen to mus ic, or work yourself into a peak state.