What is motivation in simple words - what it is like and how not to lose it

One person studies and works all day long with pleasure, while another does it through force. And the point is not that the first, unlike the second, does what he likes. Much more often the reason is due motivation. It generates the desire and opportunity to achieve goals by overcoming oneself. To enjoy waking up early in the morning or doing monotonous work, you need to properly motivate yourself. There are many effective ways that, once mastered, you can achieve success in any business.

How is motivation different from self-motivation?

Motivation in most cases involves external influence. This could be an illustrative example of other people, instructions from management, or any other factors that require a person to match the circumstances. It is optimal when it is not too intrusive and involves receiving a reward. So, if the bosses demand to do more work in less time, and without additional payment, this situation will be unprofitable for the employee. At first, it may continue to work by inertia, but this is not a fact. Therefore, such an unfair strategy is doomed to failure. However, even here there are exceptions. When a person truly loves his job, he is interested in further development and professional achievements are not on the same level as financial gain, we talk about self-motivation. It differs from the motivation described above in that a person independently strives for perfection, despite the accompanying external factors. Personal growth is important to him, not benefit or praise from superiors. There is no need for additional incentives and control, even in difficult situations.

About frogs

I have read about this tool in several books and highly recommend taking it into use. The expression “eating a frog” means doing a required, but not very pleasant action for us, for example, making a difficult call, sorting out a large amount of mail. In fact, all the big and important tasks for the day can be included here.

And here we should adhere to two rules: out of all the frogs, we choose the largest and most unpleasant one, that is, we choose the more important, labor-intensive and time-consuming action and begin to carry it out. And the second rule: don’t look at the frog. Just eat it. In other words, don't beat around the bush, the sooner you start this action, the sooner you will complete it.

Train yourself to do all the hardest things in the first half of the day. This way you will increase your efficiency and you will spend the rest of the day with a pleasant feeling of accomplishment.

How to develop intrinsic motivation

Various methods of motivation work successfully in real conditions, but only if the action is under control. First it must be created, and then maintained at the proper level. You can motivate yourself or another person like this:

• induce;
• force;
• create the right situation.

When managing motivation, you need to take into account a person’s character traits and his leading qualities. For example, someone who cannot enjoy work may be motivated only by the result. Self-motivation has an inextricable connection with desires, beliefs, aspirations in life and everything that is important for a person. It is these factors that can prompt specific actions.

It is worth noting that the presence of motivating circumstances is an important, but not necessary condition in order to achieve what you want. Without understanding this, people wait for a long time for the “right mood” and, without waiting for a motivated state, they abandon their plans, giving up. In fact, to start taking action, just simple prudence is enough. The main thing is to adequately assess the importance of the goal and remember self-discipline in time. When studying various methods of motivation, it is necessary to understand how they work and in what situations they are powerless:

• a long period of apathy - may signal health problems, and not a lack of proper incentives;
• the expectation that the desire to do what you don’t want will come on its own - you need to learn to activate it yourself, otherwise it may never come;
• the use of methods that are incompatible with goals and character traits;
• multiple attempts to use the same methods, despite the lack of results;
• telling yourself “should” instead of “want” - any action should be a voluntary choice, and not a forced measure.

To develop internal motivation, it is very important to properly deal with breakdowns. Failure should not be a reason to give up what you want. It is better to use it as an additional “kick” for further actions.

Lack of purpose

Often many people stray from the intended course due to the lack of or too vague goals. Let's look at a specific example:

You have decided to lose weight and get a more attractive figure. We bought scales, a tracksuit, special sneakers, and a gym membership. Six months have passed, there are some changes, but you don’t like working out, and the result bears little resemblance to your original dreams. You are disappointed in yourself, in this fitness club, and in the brand of your equipment.

Let's look at another example, where we have something similar to the first example: the same scales, suit, subscription, sneakers. You honestly go to the gym, but the result is still not pleasing. You have lost weight, but something is still wrong. This is not what you wanted at all. What did you want?

And tip number two: set a specific goal that you can measure in some quantitative units. If you lose weight, by how much? Attractive figure, what is this? Over what period of time do you want to achieve the final result? I offer a simple tool that will help us with goal setting, namely: a SMART goal. The abbreviation stands for:

S - Specific (Specific, what we want) Lose weight

M - Measurable (Measurable, how and in what we will measure) For 10 kilograms (from 64 kg to 54 kg)

A - Attainable, Achievable (Achievable by which we will achieve) Refusal of flour, replacing sugar with a substitute, drinking two liters of water per day and going to the gym three times a week

R - Relevant (Relevant, determine the accuracy of the target)

T — Time-bound (Limited in time) Half a year (from 1.09 – 1.03.)

• Set specific goals that you can measure in quantitative terms.

You can read more about setting SMART goals in the article: “How to turn a dream into a real task using the SMART goal setting technique.”

Ways and methods of self-motivation

The following ways will help you move forward confidently, develop and get what you want:

1. Burn bridges. If you get rid of any possibility of retreat, you can significantly increase your own chances of success. Anyone who has decided to open a business (and has every opportunity to do so) should quit their main job. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to bring the idea to life: stability will always outweigh the risky endeavor.
2. Surround yourself with motivating objects. A person who dreams of losing weight can hang posters with the images he strives for. And anyone who wants to get rich can change the screensaver on their phone or computer to a picture with the treasured amount of money.
3. Create a positive environment. Maximum communication with those who motivate and support will bring invaluable benefits. The same cannot be said about those who spew negativity and dissuade us from achieving our goals in every possible way.
4. Be inspired by other people's examples. Stories from people who have already done what a person strives for will charge you with energy and motivate you to succeed. After all, if someone has already done it, then everything is possible.
5. Get rid of sources of negativity. It is advisable to remove from life everything that causes negative emotions, including news on TV. Positive thinking 100% per day provides significant support in increasing motivation.
6. Act immediately. You can't put off your plans for later. After making a decision to change your life, you need to start doing it immediately. Do you have a goal to invest money in a profitable business? So, it's time to read thematic literature. Do you want to get rid of 15 kg? The first thing to start with is to remove harmful foods from the refrigerator.

The listed methods of motivation are effective in almost every case. Sometimes you just need to believe in yourself and everything starts to work out.

Take care of yourself

If you want to be motivated for as long a period of time as possible, you should not forget about the basic needs of sleep, proper and regular meals and walks in the fresh air. To do as much as possible and have a good mood, you need to be well-rested and not hungry. Why? Sleeping in fits and starts, for four hours at a time, small snacks and lack of oxygen lead to various problems in the physical processes of the body. How to move mountains if you have heartburn, dark circles and headaches? Your body and brain will serve you better qualitatively and quantitatively if you take care of yourself

Proper nutrition, sleep and fresh air will provide you with the strength to move forward and not get tired of kicking your feet.

Examples of positive and negative motivation

Positive motivation is built on similarly positive, correct incentives, and negative motivation, accordingly, on negative ones. A simple example can be given. When a child is told: “if he studies well, they will buy him a new computer,” his thinking is set in a positive way and he is encouraged to try harder in his studies. When the condition sounds like this: “if you complete your homework, you will not be punished,” the stimulus is the fear of experiencing pain. The attitude is fundamentally negative, although often effective.

Compare

Your present self with your past self, and not with those around you. Consciously assessing yourself in relation to other people and understanding where you are now (professionally or in any other aspect) is good. But constant comparisons not in your favor will lead to you giving up and deciding that you will not achieve the same success. Also, by comparing yourself with others, you strive to reach their level. That is, you focus on their achievements, and not on possible options. It is much more constructive to track your progress in relation to your current and past you. You can record a video message for yourself or write a letter to the future. Making promises to yourself will make it harder for you to break them. And by checking the boxes next to your goals, you will experience a huge surge of pride and enormous strength to set and conquer new heights.

• Compare your current results with your past ones
• Focus on the best result, not on the results of others

Self-motivation exercises and trainings

Articles on ways to achieve success have been studied, motivational stories have been read to the gills, but there is still no incentive to get off the couch? You can use some exercises that can help develop self-motivation:

• set priorities - put everything that is important in the first positions, and put everything unnecessary into the background;
• clearly set goals - draw up an action plan on paper and place it in a visible place;
• keep a success diary and write down all positive actions in it, even the most insignificant ones;
• regularly watch motivational videos, read inspiring books;
• divide one large task into several small ones, and reward yourself after completing each of them;
• create a suitable environment - calm for introverts, active for extroverts;
• surround yourself with optimists and laugh more often;
• publicly declare your goals;
• get rid of the feeling of perfectionism and not get upset over trifles - few people manage to do everything perfectly, so there is no need to strive for an unreasonably perfect result;
• do what you are good at - even if this activity brings little benefit, the main thing is satisfaction.

During mass trainings, exercises are performed in a group where many people participate at once. This has its advantage - you can take an example from another person or take into account his mistakes. For example, all participants are given the task to talk about those people who motivate them and compare themselves with them. Or a certain situation is conceived in which each of the training participants conditionally wants to be, and one person is given the task of acting as a demotivator. He does this as best he can for one minute, then the situation is discussed and conclusions are drawn.

Proper motivation is the key to success. It can and should be developed. By applying expert advice in practice, you can really achieve what you want. The main thing is to act and not sit in one place in the hope that everything will happen by itself.

Divide by

Part of our big goal or dream. When you plan something global and with a long period of time, there is a risk that at the end of the road what awaits us is not at all what we thought so carefully at the beginning, visualizing the final result. If you decide to lose 10 kilograms, will you weigh yourself in the process? It's the same here. We need a plan, or subgoals.

The goal is to lose 10 kilograms.

Subgoals: buy a subscription, buy equipment, make a schedule for visiting the club, agree on a diet and training course with a coach. Break a large task into small ones. This way you can track the result and adjust yourself to current circumstances. This exercise will help us not only stick to the set course, but will also help us produce dopamine, the pleasure hormone, in a completely natural way.

• We divide big goals into many small ones;
• We track the results;
• We correct ourselves.

Read

Biographies of successful people are a whole storehouse of advice and ready-made instructions for action. Let the reading be conscious. Ask yourself: what will this book do for me? What do I want to take away from reading this?

Make notes in the margins, discuss what you read, try it on yourself. Make your own assumptions before reading any resolution.

Forming the skill of conscious reading will help you better assimilate and translate what you read.

Be in love with what you do

It's impossible to be passionate about something you don't like. And now I’m not talking about routine duties, but about work, hobbies or any other activity in which you intend to develop. It's impossible to motivate yourself to take better and more photographs if you don't enjoy it. With hard work you can achieve success in almost any field, but why beat yourself up? Choose what you like. Have you graduated from a university with a degree in law, but do you want to make bouquet arrangements? You can temporarily work in your specialty and master the profession that you like. This is where you will have to work hard on the way to your desired field of activity. But why spend your whole life in a job you don’t love?

• Look for what you like
• Don't be afraid to change direction
• Be open to learning