“Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.” – Les Brown
Many experts say motivation is a key ingredient to success. After all, you can’t succeed at anything if you don’t have that drive, that fuel, that motivation pushing you to succeed.
When you lack motivation, you won’t feel the need to actually go out and do something about your life. You won’t be driven to succeed. You wouldn’t even want to get out of bed!
You’ll start something, but you never get around to finishing it. You just seem to run out of gas somewhere in the middle, and you stop looking towards your goals. You tuck your tail in, turn your back and surrender.
When you do this, then it only means one thing – you’ve lost motivation. You may not have lost hope yet, but you just don’t feel motivated enough to do anything about your situation.
If it’s always been your dream to become a successful business owner and you’ve got opportunity staring down at you, why would you say no to it? Is it because it’s too hard?
You’re probably thinking, “I don’t have to do this right now. I’ve got more important things to do.” Or “I’ll do this tomorrow. My friends are inviting me to party tonight.” Whatever it is, you’re literally going to kill your dreams if you don’t do anything to get your motivation back!
Your lack of motivation will lead to a lack of productivity which in turn will lead to lack of progress. When you don’t progress, you don’t succeed. It’s that simple.
So, how do you get your motivation back?
Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. We’re all motivated by different things. What might motivate me, may not motivate you. Likewise, what you use to fuel your drive to succeed may not sit well with me.
Different ‘experts’ may say there are different kinds of motivations. However, it all boils down to the following: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Let’s go through each type of motivation in detail:
Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is when you are motivated by internal factors or something that you, personally, find rewarding. You’re fueled by an internal desire to succeed, not by an external factor. With intrinsic motivation, you experience internal satisfaction.
For example, you’re motivated to go out and go to work every day because it makes you feel good, it makes you feel useful. Or you volunteer at your favorite charity because you like helping people and it helps relieve your stress.
You want to succeed because you know it’s going to change your life for the better. You seek to grow and improve yourself because you know it’s going to help you achieve your goals much faster.
You do it because you want to see your family’s quality of life improve. You love the feeling of accomplishing something, so you go out there and hustle and fight for your dreams.
With intrinsic motivation, you don’t need other external factors to motivate you. You’ve got the driving force within you, so to speak. When you’re feeling unmotivated, remind yourself again why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation comes in the form of rewards or incentives, but it can also come in the form of punishment.
For instance, you want to succeed at becoming the top salesperson in your company. There’s a $10,000 bonus at stake, so you do your best to reach the top. You keep your eyes on the prize, you don’t look away not even for a second, and you use it to motivate you to go out there and do your job to the best of your ability.
With regard to punishment, some people are motivated by fear of getting punished or getting penalized. If you’ve got people on your team performing below par, then you may want to think of a way to penalize them.
The thing with punishments is that if you don’t know what you’re doing, then it can backfire on you. But if you do manage to instill just the right amount of fear, then it can lead to more motivated people working for you. You just need to find the right balance.
Extrinsic rewards work extremely well for competitive individuals. For example, in the case of athletes. They are naturally competitive. They fight for recognition, for trophies, for monetary rewards. They want to win because they want to be recognized as the best in their sport. They want to win because they want to become a champion. And they want to win because they want that prize money for themselves and their teammates.
Which Is Better? Intrinsic Or Extrinsic Motivation?
It depends on your situation really. As I’ve mentioned earlier, we’re all motivated by different things and by different factors. It will also depend at what stage you are in your journey.
In the beginning, most people will probably be motivated by extrinsic factors. Most people will be working hard for the money. But when they’ve got all the money they want, then it may no longer motivate them as well as it did in the early part of their journey.
Now, they’d probably be more motivated by intrinsic factors. They continue their journey to success because they enjoy the process, they learn a lot from the experience, and so on.
On the other hand, some may be motivated by intrinsic factors at first. But later on, in the latter part of their journey, extrinsic factors may be more appealing to them.
Remember, there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to motivation. It all boils down to what makes you tick. Look deep within you – find out what will light a fire under you every time you start slacking off.
Know Your “Why”
Knowing your “why” is essential if you want to succeed. Your “why” can either be intrinsic or extrinsic, only you yourself will know what your “why” is. Why do you want to succeed so badly? When you’ve got the right answer, then you’ve got a strong “why,” you’ve got strong motivation right there.
Your “why” will carry you through the rough days, it will get you out of bed on those days you don’t feel so good. Your “why” will essentially drive you to succeed. When everything goes dark around you, your “why” will show you the light. It will be the light shining brightly in the darkness.
Essentially, knowing your “why” will be your biggest source of motivation. Without it, you’ll have a tough time overcoming the challenges that will inevitably come your way.
Additional Reading: How To Set Goals To Right Way