How Are You Motivated?

Photo credit: Randy Tarampi of Unsplash.com

How Are You Motivated?

Last week my blog focused on four ways (TRIP) to stay motivated enough to complete your New Years resolutions. That topic stirred some curiosity about how we humans are motivated. My research brought up a lot of data, but it all boiled down to: Are you motivated intrinsically or extrinsically?

Intrinsically is internal where “doing something for the sake of personal satisfaction” versus extrinsically which is external and is “doing something to earn a reward or avoid something negative”.

I had the unfortunate experience over the holidays to complete 24 hours of continuing education before my insurance license lapsed…ugh! I was extrinsically motivated to finish the courses and the exam. Believe me when I tell you in the future, I will find a way to get the CE credits in a way that doesn’t require 24 hours in front of a computer screen during the last month of availability.

I lean more to the intrinsic motivation because I love to get a lot of personal satisfaction. Such as, I am much more motivated to get in shape at the gym to get back on the ski slopes. I get satisfaction out of both activities, the workout, and the time gliding down a mountain side on the snow. Plus, my clothes fit better!

Setting New Year resolutions has a lot to do with how we are motivated. What makes you get up in the morning and tackle your to do list? I love to do lists and I make one before the beginning of each week. They give me a roadmap for the upcoming work that needs to be completed. Resolutions are kind of like that. If you list the tasks to meet the resolutions in order and cross them off you get the satisfaction of seeing tasks finished, and you get closer to meeting the goal.

Sometimes we are motivated by negativity, like with my insurance license. Did I get satisfaction out of finishing the online classes? Yes, of course, but I could have used that time skiing!  Therein lies the rub. If we can find a way to set goals that are intrinsic, we will be happier than being under the gun to meet an extrinsic goal to avoid a problem.

In other words, set goals in such a way that makes you feel good and gives you a sense of accomplishment. Make them internally. Use my TRIP system with tenacity, resilience, imagination, and purpose and you can’t go wrong.

Remember to take a TRIP for a lifetime, not a trip of a lifetime.

In the end, it’s one man’s opinion, mine.

Keith……