What is motivation?
Motivation is the internal force, or the pull of an external force on someone, that drives them to take action.
Unfortunately most people have hardly any motivation at all.
In the workplace this results in:
Decreased productivityWorse overall resultsProcrastinationDecreased satisfaction in the work once it's been accomplishedVarious other detrimental effects
In life this lack of motivation also has negative results.
These are things such as:
Getting tired more quickly and easilyLack of focus and being easily distractedPoor social connections with other peopleIn general just feeling less "alive"
Nobody wants to suffer from these effects. However, it can be very hard to get yourself motivated--especially at first, so people often times unwillingly suffer from poor motivation for years.
Fortunately you don't have to.
Psychologists have long wandered what motivates people. Why people do certain things, and why others don't, and whether there is a common cause for everything that people do.
After a long time and a lot of studying on their part, they have discovered that their are, in fact, a few common motivational factors that work for everyone.
The four factors are:
FearRewardNeedSelf-Actualization
First, let's focus on fear.
Intrinsically, fear is the emotion you get when you perceive that something bad is going to happen that will decrease the quality of your life. People are naturally motivated by fear. Not too long ago there was a study done by a U.S. based research team. These particular researchers wanted to find out the motivation behind why rich people became rich. They were surprised to find that most rich people didn't become rich because they wanted more money-they became rich because they were afraid of NOT having money.
The lesson here is this:
If you can figure out what you're afraid of, then you will be able to motivate yourself in the right direction.
The second motivational factor is reward.
We've all seen this factor at work. For example, when a little kid is supposed to clean his room, but he doesn't want to, his mom might tell him he'll get some cake if he cleans it right now. Then he runs upstairs, cleans his room, and runs back down for the cake.
This motivational factor does work, however reward isn't nearly as powerful of a motivator as fear. Using them in combination is the best way to get results.
The third factor is need.
Everyone has needs, and at the most basic level this is a fantastic motivator. People will even go so far as to kill just to get some food or water.
The problem is that as we get to more complex needs (like financial security), people are less motivated by the pure "need" aspect.
This can be used to motivate, but unfortunately it's not the most powerful tool either.
The last, and perhaps most powerful tool (yes, even better than fear) is self-actualization.
This is essentially when someone reaches a point in their life when all their basic needs and more complex needs are fulfilled. At this point they, almost automatically, begin trying to become the best person they can become.
The only issue with this, of course, is that you must first meet all your basic and slightly more advanced needs first. (To see more of what I mean with basic vs. advanced needs, Google "Abraham Maslow" and look at his hierarchy of needs).
So overall--fear is the best motivator. Figure out what you're afraid of and then use it to motivate you in the right direction!
Jeff Russell is the owner and author of the site http://www.undergroundperformancetactics.com/. This site offers an email newsletter on the subject of personal development and maximizing productivity as well as other useful information. To find out more about motivation, and to discover 8 powerful methods for maximizing your productivity check out http://www.undergroundperformancetactics.com/.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar