Personal Development
How you can use your motivation on purpose

How you can use your motivation on purpose

Nothing is working without motivation – neither in your job nor in your free time. Motivation gives you the impulse for action. Motivation is also individual that means what is motivation for someone is not necessary motivation for another, because it is not important to him/her. Motives can also change in time.

When I was a child my principal motivation was to finish as quickly as possible my homework to have much free time for playing and having fun with my colleagues on the playground. With a higher age my motives changed, I was motivated in obtaining the best scores to make it possible to study what I wished to. Later on when I was studying I was motivated to accumulate knowledge and to learn much to be able apply this in my future job. 

The first step to use the power of motivation is to reflect what motivates you. What aim do you target? Where do you want to go? We are the best specialists when we are talking about ourselves. We can be also motivated by fundamental needs like food, drink, sleep, warmth, sexuality or security or by abstract needs like the ideal of self-realization. Maslow established a classification of human needs, which are motivating our action.

Bildschirmfoto 2016-03-08 um 17.42.16

 The different levels are based on each other so that it is impossible to reach the next level without having passed the previous one. If you have found yourself in one of the levels (that means you think where you actually are and where you want to go), the next question is: How do you attain the target? It is important to reflect which factors are sustaining your motivation. Research says that among those factors we count:

1.) reward ( external factors like: money, status or power versus internal factors like: personal workflow)

2.) appreciation ( like praise from environment)

3.) sense

4.) discipline ( establish a routine)

 Now it is up to you if you choose only one or two of them or if you take them all as motivational factors. It depends on you!

Literature

  • Roy Baumeister, John Tierney: Die Macht der Disziplin. Wie wir unseren Willen trainieren können. Campus, Frankfurt am Main, 2012.
  • Klaus Rothermund, Andreas Eder: Motivation und Emotion. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2011.
  • Falko Rheinberg, Regina Vollmeyer: Motivation, Kohlhammer. Stuttgart 2011
  • Bruno S. Frey, Margit Osterloh: Managing Motivation. Wie Sie die neue Motivationsforschung für Ihr Unternehmen nutzen können. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2002.
  • Gabriele Oettingen u.a. : Self-regulation strategies improve self-discipline in adolescents: Benefits of mental contrasting and implementation intentions. Educational Psychology, 31, 2011, 17-26.

 

What role does motivation play in your life? Please share some thoughts!

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