I’m sure you’ve often been asked, or asked yourself, what is your motivation, when tackling a job or task. But what does that mean?
When you ask the question what motivation means to you, it also begs the questions, “Do I believe in motivation” and, “Do I really need motivation?” In other words, do you believe you need motivation to succeed in your career and personal goals?
The dictionary defines motivation as something that causes a person to act or a method to provide a motive. Motivation comes with many different faces. Some you may recognize and some you may not.
Some synonyms for motivation are inspiration, incentive, drive and enthusiasm. Do any of these look familiar? If they don’t, then you may need motivation more than you think.
It appears some people were born motivated. They hit the ground running each morning with a burst of energy that makes others feel nauseous while settling into their desk and downing their first cup of coffee. Throughout the day, their energy levels continue to help them as they tackle one project after another. Meanwhile, you watch from your desk with emotions ranging from skepticism to admiration.
You, on the other hand, struggle to get going, and it goes downhill from there. You could do as well as your colleague if only you could just get started and find the motivation. Becoming motivated and staying motivated is difficult for most of us.
If things get really bad, depression may take hold as you continue to watch others run the race and finish while you’re still in the starting gate. Depression has been called the absence of motivation.
However, it’s difficult to be depressed when you’re motivated; and equally difficult to fail or fall behind when you’re motivated. Perhaps you’re plagued with short bursts of motivation only to lose interest when the going gets tough. This is common not only in business goals and projects but in your personal life as well.
Most people who are motivated in their personal life find it easy to maintain that enthusiasm in their daily work. If you equate motivation with success, eagerness and passion you could be right. Are you eager and passionate about your daily tasks? Or, do you painfully slog on through them and only see a glimmer of happiness when the task is complete?
Perhaps you have stumbled on a key to becoming motivated. There are hundreds of ways to acquire motivation but nothing motivates like success. We’re not talking here necessarily about winning an election or first prize in a contest, although that would be great. Success comes in all sizes and disguises.
If you’re trying to lose weight and the pounds keep dropping each week you step on the scale, you feel motivated to do more. If you’ve made a dozen sales calls and finally make a sale, you’re ready to make a dozen more calls seeking another measure of success because it’s so motivating. It’s true that some people were born with an innate quality of motivation. But, motivation is a vital skill that you can learn.
Over the next few posts we are going to delve into motivation more, in an effort to help you find the key to being able to find what motivates you, and to ensure that you achieve all that you want to in both your personal life and your career.