What is it? How do I get it? How do I keep it?
What is it?
The word motivation is often used to describe ‘why’ a person does something and is commonly thought of as an internal drive that get us up and moving towards a set goal, eg. taking that class, starting that book, joining that gym etc. But when we really look at it motivation involves biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behaviour.
The definition of motivation is:
a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.
Motivation can come from within (intrinsic motivation) such as the desire to improve at a particular skill or achieve a certain goal. Or, motivation can come from other people or rewards (extrinsic motivation).
How do I get it?
Many people will feel a spark of motivation after seeing or reading something and hope that this then inspires action, however, this can often fade before the action actually happens leaving the person to wait for the next spark of motivation to take that action.
Sometimes you have to get started before you get the feeling of being motivated.
Yes! It may not be something you want to hear but a lot of the time the motivation will come once you have started taking action, and sometimes not until you see some kind of result.
For example:
You may want to get stronger and fitter.
But the daily motivation may not be there yet. However, you may need to get yourself moving or get yourself to the gym to gain the feeling of achievement that will then motivate you to go again.
For some people they need to habitual-ise the new task into their day by building it into a routine.
For example:
Wake up, put on the activewear you laid out the night before and get straight to the gym.
Or
As soon as you return home from work, you change into your casual clothes and practice your new skill for 20 minutes before doing anything else (like sitting on the sofa and turning on the tv).
Sometimes a set routine is the best way to not only make sure the new task happens, but also to bypass the need for that feeling of motivation.
A lot of the time consistency itself will help develop motivation, if we wait for that “feeling of motivation” whenever it is time to complete the task, then on the occasion it doesn’t come- it is far more likely that the activity is dropped all together.
How do I keep it?
The fact of the matter is- you might not always feel motivated to do something, sometimes self discipline has to come into play in order to achieve your goals.
Creating a clear and specific goal and then breaking that up into smaller goals that you can aim for and achieve will help to motivate you more than general, more vague goals.
For example:
Instead of the goal “I want to be stronger”
Turn that into “I want to ultimately squat my own body weight by the New Year”
The break that up into “Squat x weight by the end of month 1. Squat x weight by the end of month 2”
This breaks it up into smaller achievements to keep you satisfied and motivated until getting to your end goal.
And this can be applied to anything.
If you want to read a stack of books you’ve been meaning to read, aim for 1 book every 2 weeks at first, which can be broken up further into 1 chapter a day or 20 minutes of reading every day etc.
If you want to learn a new skill your first goal might be to sign up for a course or a class, then practice for a certain amount of time every day.
Being able to tick off small achievements can help keep you feeling motivated in your new activity.
