WAYS FOR UNLIMITED MOTIVATION

There is no doubt that motivation is one of the most desirable psychophysical states in modern society. In the maze of empty advice, we need a mature and research-based view of motivation. In this article, you'll learn 8 ways to develop your natural, inner motivation.

Motivation is like a drug

Have you ever watched a motivational video on YouTube? One that was meant to convince you that there are no limits and that you can do anything? Or maybe you even attended a motivational training?

Think back to that moment and remember how you felt then:

What do you owe to the energy you awakened in yourself?
What exactly did you do with that?
How long did this feeling stay with you?

Be honest with yourself.

Certainly, we have some benefits from such an energy boost. However, I do not take it as a motivation in the true sense of the word, but rather as an "emotional high" which due to its short-term nature, is not worth much attention.

Motivation is a state of mind, a life energy that doesn’t have to act like a reservoir that needs to be refilled all the time.

I used to believe that motivation must still be stimulated. At one point, I felt tired of it. I had the feeling that I was, in a way, forcing myself to act – I was injecting myself with a “pleasant drug”, which allowed me to ride the wave for several hours and do what I required of myself.

When it stopped working, there was a mental hangover. Inside, I was consumed with guilt that I was again reluctant to pursue my goals. It was difficult for me to come to terms with the idea that I would probably have to put so much effort into motivating myself all my life. Plus, the more I took this motivational drug, the less it worked.

Today I don’t need to stimulate myself to act in any way. I conclude that the vast majority of problems with motivation stem from a lack of understanding of what it is and how it works.

We try to motivate ourselves in various ways, but in this way, we only reduce the symptoms of our general aversion to life. We do not treat the causes that lie a little deeper.

In this post, we will look at the phenomenon of motivation a little wider and we will dig into its sources.

You will learn about 3 key factors influencing your motivation and 8 ways that will make you more motivated every day.

Let’s start with what motivation is anyway.

Different faces of motivation

Motivation is an internal, psychophysical state of readiness to undertake a specific action.

This state of readiness applies to our every action. Thus, motivation can take very different forms. It is not only the feeling of an inner desire to make your life better and to achieve your goals.

Every emotion we feel is a form of motivation. Emotions assign meaning to certain events in our lives and are an impulse to take specific actions.

For example, the goal of sadness is to withdraw and find a space for ourselves where, in solitude, we can express our feelings (e.g. by crying) and think about matters that are important to us. The purpose of fear is to take steps to keep us safe.

So emotions lead us to meet our psychological needs. These are the motivators that drive our behavior.

So the question is, what emotions motivate your actions? In other words, why are you doing what you are doing? Are you motivated by fear, longing, desire, guilt, or maybe the joy of what you are doing?

For one, motivation may be a desire to realize that beautiful, colorful vision that he has long carried in his imagination. For another, it may be the decisive voice of a father who wants to be proud of his child. For yet another person, motivation can be a fear of a boring and unsatisfying life.

Motivation is a very broad concept and it is worth understanding how it works in our case. When we put all the stimulating states into one bag, we prevent ourselves from understanding what motivates us and why.

Now take a moment to reflect on the following questions:

How am I feeling motivated?
What emotions motivate me the most?
What kind of motivation is the best basis for effective action for me?
What kind of motivation do I want to be less and what more?

3 key motivating factors

Motivation can be divided into internal and external. The inner flows from the inside and is the result of unmet needs and the outer one results from social norms and the system of punishments and rewards. I will not devote any space to the latter because, according to repeated studies, it is simply not very effective.

A huge number of factors affect intrinsic motivation, but some of them can be considered key. Daniel Pink in his book “Drive” writes that motivation comes down to three most important elements:

Autonomy, i.e. the desire to independently manage one’s own life,
Mastery, i.e. the desire to constantly develop in something important to us,
Meaning, or the desire to do things in the service of something greater than ourselves.

Below, I discuss each of these elements and propose simple and practical solutions that will allow you to work on your motivation.

Factor 1: Autonomy

Autonomy is our natural tendency to manage ourselves. It is the right to freedom and independence that we give to ourselves.

Autonomy is the point in your life where you know that you are completely independent in directing your actions. You have the freedom to live the way you want, so you can adequately respond to your needs and desires. You don’t do anything just because someone else told you to or thought it would be good for you. You know what’s best for you, and if you don’t already know it – by trial and error, you will finally get there.

Motivation never works in the world of pressure and coercion, therefore its basis is precisely autonomy. The more free you feel and the more control you have over your life, the more motivated you will be.

So what can you do to have more autonomy in your life?

1. Free yourself from the dictatorship of “must” and “should”.

We live in a social network of duties, norms, rules, prohibitions, and orders. It’s as if we are tied with hundreds of ropes that limit our movements. Of course, these cords only exist in our heads, and breaking them is the realization that we don’t need anything. And even if we feel we have to, it’s only because we’re not aware of why we want to do so.

For example, “I need to pass an exam” often at a deeper level means “I want to stay in this college, and if I fail my exam I will be kicked out.”

You regain freedom when you understand that all you do in life is your independent choice. If you allow yourself to be guided by others – it’s also your choice – in the end you decide to give someone control over your life.

It is also worth being aware of the impact that the words “must”, “should” and “want” have on our neurology.

Close your eyes and say a few sentences with your inner voice. Each of them twice, once with “I have to” and once with “I want” at the beginning. For example: “I need to clean my room”, “I want to clean my room”.

Note the difference in the feelings that come from such internal communication.

2. Act to your needs.

If you are trying to motivate yourself to do something that does not result from your natural needs – you will force yourself to do it.

Unfortunately, living in a modern society presents us with a whole host of unrealistic, artificial expectations. Be beautiful, be perfectly healthy, achieve success, be happy, find your passion, find the love of your life, build a family, and play sports. When we feel overwhelmed by so many demands, our life energy dies.

Choose only what is compatible with you. Remove all unnecessary noise. Choose what you feel you want to do. Set all the rest aside. If your life is the one you like and in which you feel like a fish in water – then motivation will be your natural state of being.

3. Earn more freedom at work

Talk to your boss and convince him to allow you to have more influence on the way you achieve your goals. Say that you want to work for the effect and that the ability to choose the path to achieve the goal gives more space for your creativity and good fuel for your motivation.

If he is not convinced, ask him for a trial month only. Or a week. You must show with your work that if you have more freedom, the results of your work are better. Not in every profession, and not with every boss, it will be possible, but it is worth a try.

Factor 2: Mastery

Mastery is the result of the pleasure that comes from becoming better at something. When we feel that we are making real and visible progress in something, our motivation increases.

The key here is to get better at what is important to us. Regardless of whether it’s chess, project management, or weeding your garden – if you feel that something is close to your heart, you will want to constantly develop your skills.

What can you do to use the mastery effect to develop your motivation?

4. Choose the right size for the challenge.

If the goals you set for yourself are too easy for you, you will not feel the excitement of achieving them (excitement is an integral part of motivation, and according to some psychological theories – it is even synonymous with it).

If they are too difficult, a lack of self-confidence or fear of failure may paralyze you – here the motivation will also be low.

There is a principle in cognitive psychology, whereby young children naturally choose tasks that are neither too easy nor too difficult for them. Therefore, when setting goals, it is worth choosing a level of challenge that will require a bit more skill than you currently have. It should be a challenge that will allow you to reach the “flow” state without arousing fear or uncertainty.

5. Discover what is important to you

I don’t mean discovering your passion here, because there is no such thing as only passion. There are many things you may be interested in. If you can’t find anything like that, then you should probably focus on the mental and emotional obstacles that block your curiosity about the world.

Little children are not looking for their passion. They try everything. They are interested in everything. Be like a child because discovering what is important and interesting to us requires searching, testing, and experimenting.

Give yourself time for this.

Do not expect from yourself that you will know what you want to invest your free hours in right here and now. If you are doing something that you do not care about and that does not make your heart beat faster – be sure to look for another activity, hobby, or passion.

6. Be good at meeting your needs

According to Maslov’s pyramid, when we meet our basic needs (e.g. physiological, security, belonging), our psyche will naturally strive to satisfy the next ones – those that are higher on the pyramid.

This is because every unmet need demands our mind’s attention. If we do not feel safe, lack self-acceptance, and do not feel part of a group, we will not be able to focus on the need for self-realization (which includes, for example, personal development). Only when we learn to take care of these basic needs will we free our mental space and energy to take on new challenges.

Take a look at Maslov’s pyramid and think about which levels you can take best care of. Then select those areas that would be worth focusing on shortly. Of course, our needs cannot be satisfied once, once, and for all. This requires the ability to keep a steady balance in life. Habits help a lot, thanks to which you will be able to take care of all the most important needs without much effort.

Factor 3: Sens

From the point of view of evolutionary psychology, helping other people is an inherent need of every human being. We are programmed to increase the chances of survival of our community, and therefore of the species, by supporting our environment.

So what happens when our goals include goals that are “greater than ourselves” – those that apply not only to our lives? Then a deep sense of meaning appears in us, which is the foundation for achieving higher levels of motivation.

Suppose you work for a company that sells junk food, which has a destructive effect on the health of hundreds of thousands of people. If you are aware of this negative impact, it will probably be difficult for you to be passionate and motivated to devote yourself to your work.

If, on the other hand, you work in a company that deals with solving real, important problems for people (e.g. providing organic food or creating technological solutions for people with disabilities), the sense of meaning and importance of your work will deeply motivate you.

What can you do to live with meaning?

7. Do what matters not only to you

Consider the most pressing problems facing people in your community, city, country, or the world. Health problems? No physical movement? Psychological problems? No access to education?

Dozens of industries, professions, and companies focus on solving these and many other problems. Whatever the nature of your job, being part of a larger goal is what motivates us the most.

8. Get involved in the activities of non-profit organizations

Motivation does not have to apply only to your professional work. What you do after hours is also of great importance. If you like your job and don’t want to change it, but it doesn’t give you a deep sense of meaning, you can find that feeling elsewhere. There are plenty of such organizations. You don’t have to spend more time on it than you have – any help comes in handy in these types of places.

I want

Too often I am asked, “How can I make me feel like it?” This is a wrong question. You can’t make you want to. That would be the same as forcing yourself to do something.

Motivation is like a flower that blooms when it has the conditions to do so. Your role is not to force the flower to bloom, but to take care of the right conditions – so that it can do it in a natural way for itself.

Therefore, we should work on something other than the motivation itself, but on the conditions that will allow it to develop in us. Some of these conditions apply to our inner world (limiting beliefs, past mental habits, destructive emotions) and others to the outside world (the work we do, the place we live, the schedule of the day).

In each of these areas, there may be things that block your natural life energy. Find, learn, and understand these blockages, and then address them, whether you do them yourself, or with the help of a therapist or coach.

I hope the 8 tips I have described in this article will help you connect with your inner “want”.

Motivation is an extremely popular topic these days, and at the same time one of the most important life skills. Write in the comments how you are motivated and which of the methods listed here you will try in practice. We learn the most from each other, so it is worth sharing our thoughts and experiences.

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