How to Maintain Your Motivation

Motivation

Motivation, that mystical concept that likes to hang around with productivity in the future, but never in the present moment. In this article I’m going to explain why motivation seems to fluctuate so much, as well as a few tips for how to maintain your motivation more consistently.

Where does motivation come from?

We all have ideas, but do they truly exist until they are followed through with an action?

While we could get meta-physical and have a philosophical debate about that question, you are probably reading this because you want to boost your motivation so you can in turn boost your productivity. So in short, no, if you don’t turn your ideas and plans into tangible behaviours, they pragmatically don’t exist.

Motivation is the force that facilitates ideas into actions, thus giving them reality.

This is reflected in the structure of our brain.

We have a focus network specifically designed to engage in planning, but it can’t be turned on all of the time. In fact, this network is super lazy and wants to turn on for as little time as possible. If you ever feel like drudgery of tasks is hard to get motivated for, blame the fact that your brain doesn’t feel like the task is worth turning on your focus network.

To decide what is worth turning on the focus network though, we have a separate motivation network that helps us keep the focus network turned on for longer periods of time [1]. While I personally find the details of what turns this motivation on and off highly informative and interesting, at this point it might be better to switch to a psychological perspective. Motivation can broadly be classified as intrinsic and extrinsic.

Types of Motivation

Extrinsic

One super obvious source of motivation is money. This is something that doesn’t have value in and of itself, but lets you have access to other things that do have value. Extrinsic motivation is when you're motivated by things that aren’t actually important to you personally, but can still be rewarding to pursue.

In addition to money, other examples of extrinsic motivation include fame or education for the sake of getting a job. And yes, being paid money to do boring neuroscience studies activates the motivation network compared to when people think they are doing it for free [2].

Intrinsic

The other kind of motivation is about things that have inherent value to you, often for personal reasons. A good example to understand this is learning a second language. If you wanted to learn French to talk to your grandparents in their mother tongue, you are probably intrinsically motivated to learn the language. If you are learning French simply because it opens up job opportunities, but don’t otherwise enjoy the language, you would be extrinsically motivated.

Interestingly, when people do neuroscience studies for intrinsic reasons, their motivation network connects to additional brain structure as though to get extra help to maintain the motivation [3].

Which Type of Motivation Works Best?

On average, behaviour changes and goals motivated by intrinsic factors tend to be the most successful [4].

While Extrinsic motivation can and often does work too, intrinsic motivation runs deeper, and it is more likely to endure challenges faced in life. One science-backed approach to achieving your goals is to translate your sources of motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic.

According to Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi, the 3 P’s approach is one way to do this in the workplace [5]. For many people work is an extrinsically motivated task, which can make it hard for your motivation network to turn on your focus. By changing your perspective to align your work duties with sources of intrinsic motivation, you can make your work-related goals more achievable.

The 3 P’s to Maintain Your Motivation at Work

1 - Play

While work is often serious business, there needs to be at least a little fun. By incorporating a little bit of play into the work environment it can bring enough joy to trigger the motivation network more easily. This could be through fun team-building exercises and games at staff events. The budget for that company karaoke night has now been justified by science.

Add a little Play to the company culture.

2 - Purpose

Humans are social creatures and we love feeling like we are part of a community. Especially if that cause gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. Efforts to appreciate how your work duties could serve a purpose bigger than yourself will help switch your motivations to being more intrinsic.

You are not an angry rules-driven accountant, you are trying to create structure in the company so the government doesn’t have to waste resources auditing your company and can focus on tackling climate change.

Find the bigger Purpose in the company vision.

3 - Potential

The novelty of learning is one of those neuroscience things that can help turn on the motivation network [6]. If your workplace provides an opportunity for life-long learning and continual growth, your work will become much more intrinsically motivated.

Leaders have a unique role in helping facilitate these learning opportunities and helping everyone grow with the company, both personally and professionally. Find how the company can unlock your Potential.

Finding Sources of Intrinsic Motivation

If you want to learn more about intrinsic motivation and the 3 P’s, check out our Podcast The Science of Work. Episode 12, “How do you keep people motivated?” further explores the data behind cultivating motivation for you and your team.

How to Maintain Your Motivation

Motivation

Where does motivation come from?