What Motivates You?
(This article was first published in The Dreaming Cafe’s weekly newsletter, Issue 50, December 27, 2009)
As you continue to clarify your own goals and vision ask yourself “what motivates me?”
Is it money? Love? Fame? Love for your family? The need to belong? The need to be right? The need to accomplish something, to solve problems? To make a difference? To be the best? Guilt?
You can have more than one motivation and depending on your goals, different motivations for different goals.
For example, if one of your goals is to live a healthy, fit lifestyle and lose weight, maybe your motivation is to avoid a heart attack or diabetes, but it may also be looking hot in a bathing suit.
Sometimes identifying our motivations is difficult.
It took me a long time to realize some of the primary motivations that allowed me to successfully complete a project, or reach a goal or dream.
What motivates me?
Primary motivations – the ‘must haves’ to keep me going
1. Having a real problem to solve. Games don’t interest me. The problems in a game aren’t real to me. It’s not about winning; it’s about finding an answer, an answer to a tangible, real world problem.
2. Consequences. There has to be a consequence for failing to attain my goal.
3. Deadlines. If there is no set day and time to complete a task, then it usually will just keep falling to the bottom of my to-do list.
4. Having an opportunity to learn. Learning new things, no matter how small, help keep me motivated.
Secondary motivations – background ‘noise’ that keeps me going
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1. Being a role model for my nieces and nephews.
2. Making a difference and helping others succeed
Let me use this newsletter as an example of how my motivations play out.
Primary motivations -
1. The problem I am trying to solve is ‘how to help others’. This newsletter is also real. It is not being written as a sample. Real people are going to read it.
2. I have made the commitment to writing and publishing a weekly newsletter. The consequence of not meeting this commitment is a loss of personal credibility. (Credibility, doing what I say I am going to do, is important to me. Knowing this is important, too.)
3. My deadline for this newsletter is 5am, every Sunday. Without this deadline I might never get around to actually writing it.
4. I am always learning while I am writing. It can be the subject matter, or the formatting of the newsletter itself.
Secondary motivations -
1. This newsletter is one of the primary bricks in the foundation of my dream of writing and working for myself. By following my dreams, and living them, I hope to serve as role model for my nieces and nephews. I want them to see that following their own dreams is not only possible, but is something they should do.
2. Writing this newsletter allows me to help others. I have an opportunity to write and share what I’ve learned and inspire others to begin moving toward their own dreams. I also have an opportunity to share resources and information that helps educate and equip people with the tools they need to make their own dreams come true.
This is just one example of what motivates me and how that motivation plays out in my life.
As I said earlier, you may have different motivations for different goals. Eating a vegetarian diet is another one of my ongoing goals, but with different motivations. I don’t eat meat or eggs at all, and avoid dairy products most of the time. My primary motivation is to avoid participating in the pain and suffering of factory farming. My secondary motivation is my health, since I believe this is a healthier lifestyle.
In both examples, I have learned what motivates me.
I am reviewing my projects and goals and asking: “Why is this goal important?” “What motivates me?” “How is my motivation going to play out?” “Am I motivated enough?” “What is this the real motivation behind this goal?”
This process isn’t easy and asks me to dig a little deeper. But, I have learned that I have to know what motivates me to increase the chances of my success.
How about you? What motivates you? Have you considered what motivates you and how it plays out in your life?
Leave a reply. I’d love to hear from you.
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I’m always asking myself questions; no matter the area of my life that I’m trying to accomplish something in. My big problem, bigger than I initially thought of course, are all the distractions. The bigger problem with that is that most of those distractions are not within my control. That being said, what motivates me at the deepest level is the knowing that I can do what it is that I’ve set out to do and it will be successful. The short of it is, projects or otherwise, its just a deep down knowing in the core of my being that I will succeed. I know it sounds simplistic, yet its so important. This is one of my biggest motivators. You may not necessarily be able to explain it, but its a feeling that stays with me no matter what else is going on in my life.