“Every week I write three new articles. And every week I have to find motivation to get to work. The worst thing is that this happens to me all the time. This has gotten me to the point where I'm Googling articles on "How to Motivate Yourself" and looking for posts on the topic on Reddit. Of course, all this does not help, but only eats up my time, leaving even less for work. Work that I never started,” writes the author of the note.
As Cooper notes, there are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. “External comes from factors outside of yourself—for example, when you make your boss feel good about your success, when you get a promotion, or when you meet a deadline. Internal - when you want to do something for yourself. Finished work brings you joy or personal benefit.”
External motivation, Cooper notes, is quite common, but relying only on it may be ineffective - such factors are beyond the employee’s control. “Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from what you can control. This is a natural motivation. It is she who makes us eat when we are hungry, go to bed when we are tired, and so on. To motivate ourselves to get to work, we have to increase our internal motivation.”
However, this, the author notes, is not so easy. “Many people misunderstand what motivation is and therefore fail to increase it. In fact, motivation is an emotion. Lack of motivation is a negative emotion similar to stress. It is often impossible to quickly cope with negative emotions. Some experts say that stress is a cycle that needs to end. Even if we are distracted by something interesting, in the end we will still have to return to the stressful situation and complete the cycle. Lack of motivation may not have a similar cycle, but it is also an emotion, and in the same way it cannot simply be “turned off.”
The approaches Cooper suggests, she says, help you avoid focusing on a lack of motivation. “These methods will help you develop internal motivation and get started easily,” says the girl.
Memories
Memories of positive experiences from the past, Cooper writes, have powerful motivational abilities. As an example, she cites a study conducted at one of the universities.
Three groups took part in the study, each of which was required to play sports. At the same time, in one of the groups, students had to remember something good related to training, the second group worked as usual, and the participants in the third group had to resurrect memories of negative experiences. Students not only from the first, but also from the third group turned out to be more motivated to work.
“You don’t have to remember something good. Any memories of how you performed your work before can increase your motivation. Of course, this assumption is based on just one study, but it doesn't cost you anything to at least try, notes Cooper. - Remember how you completed the task last time: where you were, what you did, and most importantly, how you felt before and after completing the task. Maybe this will get you started."
Where to start if I decide to change my field of activity?
- Take the career guidance test on the “Russia – Land of Opportunities” platform, which will help you understand yourself better and point you in the direction of choosing an industry.
- Browse the career directory to learn about new careers, the skills needed for career development, and the schools that can teach you those skills.
- Read the success stories of the winners of competitions and projects of the “Russia – Land of Opportunities” platform to get inspired and take the first step towards your dream!
Think through every step to make the right choice and not be disappointed in your new profession. Study as much information as possible about the specialty, and best of all, try on a new role to understand how the position suits you.
Get ready to play
“Writer and entrepreneur James Clear played a lot of sports. But when it came to baseball, he often struggled with motivation. During the season he had to play many games, but he was not always in the mood. However, he couldn’t let his team down, so he had to figure out a way to prepare himself for the match every time,” Cooper says.
The clear, the girl continues, has created a “pre-game routine” for himself. Before each match, he did the same things to get into the right frame of mind. He took his glove and bat, ran across the field, did a little stretching, ran across the field again - and performed other actions, in a strict order. Clear himself says that after completing all the procedures, he felt ready to play for the rest of his life.
Now, Cooper writes, Clear plays baseball less often, but he has developed similar exercises for all areas of his activity - for athletics, for writing, and so on. “No matter how motivated he is, he just starts doing the routine, knowing that by the end of the exercise he will be ready to get to work.”
Cooper provides several recommendations for creating such a “pre-game routine”:
- “The actions should be so simple that you cannot get away with it. The clear begins preparing to write texts by pouring himself a glass of water. It's very simple."
- Some kind of physical exercise should be included in the list of actions, even if we are not talking about preparing for sports training. “The fact is that the body languages of a motivated person and an unmotivated person are very different. Physical exercise helps the body “wake up” and get into a working mood.”
- You need to repeat routine actions every time before starting work, even if motivation is already present.
Watching motivational films
Another way to force yourself to work is to watch a motivational movie. As a rule, such films show how the heroes achieve their goals and what comes out of it. Such film masterpieces are based on real events and are able to push a person to action.
If you have a goal to climb the career ladder or buy, for example, a new car, watching motivational films will push you towards your dream. Also, in addition to movies, special videos are available to Internet users that “force” a person to work.
In addition, you can find interesting books, reading which has the same effect. Fortunately, there are also many of them on bookstore shelves or freely available on the Internet.
Rely on your teammates
“If you've ever worked remotely, you know that working remotely can bring both a sense of peace and loneliness. It's wonderful to be part of a team. It brings such strong emotions that your productivity can increase just from the thought of having comrades,” Cooper explains.
The author of the note cites as an example one of the studies on increasing motivation. Participants were divided into two groups and given a puzzle each. The scientists told members of the first group that they would work with teammates, and even introduced them to each other. Members of the second group had to work alone.
Participants in the first group actually also worked alone, but the researchers handed them notes supposedly written by their comrades (in fact, these notes were written by the scientists themselves). Members of this group ultimately showed themselves to be able to work 50% longer on the problem. In addition, they noted that the work was fun and interesting.
Why does motivation disappear?
Motivation is influenced by internal and external triggers. Triggers are what cause an emotional response in us. It is emotions that move us more than logic.
Read more: Motivation and the brain - how to motivate yourself 100 times more
Desire and motivation can arise from watching an inspiring movie, reading a book, or talking with someone who has achieved success. However, despite strong desires and ambitions, the resulting motivation is often short-lived. But in most cases it evaporates. Either because the desire is not strong enough, or there is not enough inner strength and perseverance, or the dream becomes a victim of an all-consuming, omnipresent routine.
Some events or situations may cause motivation and drive, but after a while everything returns to normal life, to the comfort zone. Success requires constant motivation, not just a one-time launch. You need constant triggers to keep you motivated.
Put something on the line
Loss avoidance is a concept from the field of neuroeconomics. It describes the fact that a person experiences more emotions from a loss than from a gain - even if they are completely equivalent. “If you find $20, you will be happy. However, if you lose $20, you will be much more upset,” Cooper explains.
“The good news is that we can turn this to our advantage. One professor conducted an experiment on his students. He offered the first group of students to solve additional tasks, for each of which they could earn additional points. A student who earned 5 points did not have to take the exam. The second time he changed the problem statement. If the first time the exam was mandatory for everyone who did not earn 5 points, then the second time it was optional to earn 5 points. However, those who did not bother to solve additional problems at all lost the right not to take the final exam.”
“The difference is that we hate losing what we think is ours. In the first class, 43% of students ultimately earned 5 points and received the right not to take the exam. In the second grade, 82% of such students turned out to be,” says Cooper.
The girl recommends trying to put something important on the line. “Promise yourself that you will give up something if you can’t get the job done. You will be surprised how much your intrinsic motivation will increase.”
Find out from your subordinates what they would like
Different employees have different goals and desires, which means they need to be provided with different opportunities for work and professional growth.
You cannot motivate specific people with general programs. To increase motivation, it is necessary to find an individual approach to each subordinate. One way to do this is to delegate authority, goals and objectives to each employee when developing an overall plan or project. Another way is to give subordinates the opportunity to independently develop their own strategic goals and plans.
Be involved
Professor Devon Price recommends that managers show concern for their “lazy” subordinates. You need to try to figure out why the person stopped coping with his responsibilities. The scientist recommends abandoning accusations and condemnation of the negligent employee. The manager needs to try to understand what exactly is hindering the employee’s productivity. Thus, he will help the employee cope with problems.
If a decrease in productivity is associated with mental health problems, then you need to treat this with understanding and help the person adapt. Sometimes the amount of work seems too large and overwhelming for an employee. In this case, the manager needs to break the assigned task into small parts and plan its implementation together with the subordinate.
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Remember that kindness and sympathy are much more useful than anger and accusations of laziness. It is this approach that helps to increase productivity and complete tasks.
What about the method of small steps?
Very often, coaches and motivation specialists advise breaking a large goal into small ones. But, according to research, this is how we stimulate the insula of the brain. Does this mean the method doesn't work? Not everything is so simple. The method of small steps may well help trick dopamine.
Scientists have found that when we complete a big task, a dopamine burst occurs. But, immediately after this, the level of the hormone drops sharply, and we can fall into procrastination. Therefore, it is often recommended to set new goals before you have completed the previous one.
When we divide a big goal into a bunch of small ones, we create an endless flow of dopamine - after each small stage. This helps those who previously preferred small and easy tasks to reach the end without falling into a dopamine hole.
Choose big and complex tasks instead of small and simple ones. Divide them into small steps. Plan a new goal before the end of the previous one.
Highlight urgent tasks
When there are many tasks, it is difficult to understand what is most important. You start to take on everything at once, but the time you spend on an irrelevant task is unproductive and over time reduces your level of motivation. What can help here is time management. And it doesn’t matter which technique you choose - Pomodoro, time blocking, GTD, etc. - any one will help you optimize your work on tasks, save time and see the benefits of your work.
Get enough sleep
When you work a lot, you often forget to sleep. But a lot depends on the quality of sleep - due to lack of sleep, fatigue occurs, you begin to overeat (poor sleep increases blood sugar levels, which increases appetite), you become more anxious, and sometimes you also show aggression.
British scientists have proven that lack of sleep causes bad thoughts and hallucinations, which can subsequently lead to mental illness. To feel good and be productive, get enough sleep.
