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29 C 2017
Motivation in Achieving Goals
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Motivation in Achieving Goals
What is motivation?
Motivation is our desire to act in a certain way at the service of a goal we aim to achieve. A very important element is setting and attaining the person’s objectives, as research has shown that people can influence their own levels of motivation and self-control.
Motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic. The extrinsic kind of motivation is affected by the outside forces; while, the intrinsic kind of motivation comes from within, it pushes people more effectively and the accomplishments are more fulfilling.
For example, if someone has a goal of loosing body fat, an extrinsic motivation would be looking at the mirror and checking how the body looks from the outside while being in the process of losing fat. On the other hand, the intrinsic motivation would be losing fat to avoid and prevent health conditions in the future. The problem with extrinsic motivation is that it doesn’t last for so long. It can get you started temporarily but eventually it won’t be there for too long, whereas the intrinsic motivation because it comes from within it tends to last longer; however, you need to dig deep to find that intrinsic motivation. The motivation that will make you keep working towards your goals.
According to Maslow, 1943, there is a hierarchy of human needs: humans are motivated to better themselves and move toward expressing their full potential by encountering and satisfying their levels of needs e.g., from the most basic needs such as food and safety to higher-order needs such as love, self-esteem.
Maslow also extended that theory to the need of self-transcedance, people can reach the pinnacle of growth and find the highest meaning in life by attending to things beyond the self.
How to we work on achieving a goal?
First, set specific, achievable objectives and be realistic in setting them.
second, think about why you are setting this goal, the reason why you want to attain whatever it is that you want to attain.
You need to find the importance of your goals. This will help you in focusing your attention to it and will strengthen the motivation to accomplish it.
Divide the overarching goals into small, specific, measurable ones. Dividing them will make them easier to accomplish and will help you celebrate the accomplishments more often, these winning celebrations are the fuel in the process of achieving goals as the dopamine levels hitting high.
Having measurable tasks will help you in recognizing and celebrating each win when each micro-goal is completed, it gives the feeling of wining and accomplishment as you wrap the achieved micro-goal and proceed to the next one, it created a form of progression through clear and achievable divided stages/levels.
Third, your goals should not be too difficult to achieve but also not too easy. They should be calibrated to a precise level of difficulty. Not too hard to achieve but not too easy/boring to achieve. As the Goldilocks effect states: People engage mostly with material at the precipice of complexity.
What happens if you lack motivation?
It is normal to feel demotivated at times.
If you find yourself constantly unmotivated maybe its time to readdress your goals.
Recalibrate your goals, are they too hard to achieve? Are they unrealistic? Break them down and try to find the bottleneck, which one of these micro-goals is causing that struggle to move forward to the next one. Once it is clear, you can readdress your goals after reconsidering that one micro-goal (Bottleneck).
Lack of confidence rather motivation maybe?
Lack of confidence can also be seen in the opposite form as perfectionism and procrastination. If you constantly doubt your ability to accomplish a task, you may feel anxiously motivated but unable to take actions.
It is this gap between motivation and execution that many forms of self-sabotage and self-doubt are found. Identify what are the thought processes that stop you from achieving a goal.
Working on self-confidence development will by default enhances your motivation if it was affected by it.
Remember:
Life is too short and we should all live to our fullest potentials!
What is motivation?
Motivation is our desire to act in a certain way at the service of a goal we aim to achieve. A very important element is setting and attaining the person’s objectives, as research has shown that people can influence their own levels of motivation and self-control.
Motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic. The extrinsic kind of motivation is affected by the outside forces; while, the intrinsic kind of motivation comes from within, it pushes people more effectively and the accomplishments are more fulfilling.
For example, if someone has a goal of loosing body fat, an extrinsic motivation would be looking at the mirror and checking how the body looks from the outside while being in the process of losing fat. On the other hand, the intrinsic motivation would be losing fat to avoid and prevent health conditions in the future. The problem with extrinsic motivation is that it doesn’t last for so long. It can get you started temporarily but eventually it won’t be there for too long, whereas the intrinsic motivation because it comes from within it tends to last longer; however, you need to dig deep to find that intrinsic motivation. The motivation that will make you keep working towards your goals.
According to Maslow, 1943, there is a hierarchy of human needs: humans are motivated to better themselves and move toward expressing their full potential by encountering and satisfying their levels of needs e.g., from the most basic needs such as food and safety to higher-order needs such as love, self-esteem.
Maslow also extended that theory to the need of self-transcedance, people can reach the pinnacle of growth and find the highest meaning in life by attending to things beyond the self.
How to we work on achieving a goal?
First, set specific, achievable objectives and be realistic in setting them.
second, think about why you are setting this goal, the reason why you want to attain whatever it is that you want to attain.
You need to find the importance of your goals. This will help you in focusing your attention to it and will strengthen the motivation to accomplish it.
Divide the overarching goals into small, specific, measurable ones. Dividing them will make them easier to accomplish and will help you celebrate the accomplishments more often, these winning celebrations are the fuel in the process of achieving goals as the dopamine levels hitting high.
Having measurable tasks will help you in recognizing and celebrating each win when each micro-goal is completed, it gives the feeling of wining and accomplishment as you wrap the achieved micro-goal and proceed to the next one, it created a form of progression through clear and achievable divided stages/levels.
Third, your goals should not be too difficult to achieve but also not too easy. They should be calibrated to a precise level of difficulty. Not too hard to achieve but not too easy/boring to achieve. As the Goldilocks effect states: People engage mostly with material at the precipice of complexity.
What happens if you lack motivation?
It is normal to feel demotivated at times.
If you find yourself constantly unmotivated maybe its time to readdress your goals.
Recalibrate your goals, are they too hard to achieve? Are they unrealistic? Break them down and try to find the bottleneck, which one of these micro-goals is causing that struggle to move forward to the next one. Once it is clear, you can readdress your goals after reconsidering that one micro-goal (Bottleneck).
Lack of confidence rather motivation maybe?
Lack of confidence can also be seen in the opposite form as perfectionism and procrastination. If you constantly doubt your ability to accomplish a task, you may feel anxiously motivated but unable to take actions.
It is this gap between motivation and execution that many forms of self-sabotage and self-doubt are found. Identify what are the thought processes that stop you from achieving a goal.
Working on self-confidence development will by default enhances your motivation if it was affected by it.
Remember:
Life is too short and we should all live to our fullest potentials!
