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Elements And Goals Of Self-Motivation
Self-motivation is, in its most simplistic form, the strength that encourages you to do things.
The topic of self-motivation, though, is far from simple.
People can be motivated and inspired by many things, both internal and external, such as the passion for doing something, love of someone, or requirement for money.
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Normally, motivation is a consequence of several factors.
The capacity to motivate yourself—self-motivation—is an essential skill. Self-motivation encourages people to keep going despite setbacks, to grab up opportunities, and to display an institutionalisation to what they want to accomplish.
This page describes more about this crucial area, part of emotional intelligence.
What is Motivation?
Motivation is what propels us to achieve our goals, feel more satisfied and enhance our overall standard of life.
Understanding and promoting your self-motivation can encourage you to take command of many other perspectives of your life.
Motivation is one of the three domains of personal skills that are indispensable to the theory of emotional intelligence.
Daniel Goleman, the writer of several fundamental books on Emotional Intelligence, recognised four elements that make up motivation:
Personal ambition to achieve, the urge to improve or to meet specific standards;
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Commitment to individual or organisational goals;
Initiative, which he described as ‘readiness to perform on opportunities’; and
Resilience and Optimism, the ability to keep going and pursue goals in the face of setbacks.
To enhance self-motivation, it is consequently necessary to understand more about these specific factors.
The Elements of Self-Motivation
Personal Drive To Achieve
You could consider a personal approach to achieve as ambition, or perhaps personal empowerment. Though, it is also worth considering it in terms of mindset.
There are two varieties of mindset, fixed and growth.
Those with a fixed mindset assume that expertise is ingrained and that we cannot improve our level of ability.
Those with a growth mindset consider that they can enhance their skills through hard work and training.
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The analysis shows that those who think that they can improve—that is, who possess a growth mindset—are far more prone to achieve success in whatever field they choose.
A growth mindset is, therefore, an essential element in a personal journey to success.
Other elements of the personal drive involve being prepared, particularly being good at time management, and dodging distractions.
Commitment To Goals
There is substantial evidence, even if much of it is anecdotal, that goal-setting is vital to our general well-being.
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.
Albert Einstein
You should set goals beyond your reach so you always have something to live for.
Ted Turner
The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
Michelangelo
It makes sense that ‘if you strive at nothing, it is simple to achieve it’, and that most of us require something in our lives to aim towards.
Having a knowledge of where you want to be, and an understanding of how you intend to get there is a requisite part of staying motivated.
Initiative
The initiative is, completely, the capacity to take advantage of opportunities when they transpire.
It is all too obvious to deliberate, and then the opportunity may be gone.
However, the old maxims and proverbs ‘look before you leap’ and ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’ have a lot of honesty in them.
It is also essential to think things through and ensure that you are executing the right decision for you.
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An initiative can, therefore, be considered as a mixture of courage and sound risk management:
Risk management is required to ensure that you recognise the right opportunities to consider and that they have the relevant level of risk for you; and
Courage is required to overcome the dread of the unknown natural in new opportunities.
Optimism Or Resilience
Optimism is the capabiity to look on the happy side or think positively.
Resilience is the capability to ‘bounce back’ following a setback, or remain positive in the face of trials.
The two are intimately related, although not the same.
Resilient people exercise their capability to think as a means to handle negative emotional responses to events.
In other words, they apply positive or rational thinking to review, and if necessary, overcome the resistance that they assume may not be entirely logical.
They are also prepared to request for help if needed—as well as to offer their cooperation generously to others in need.
Types of Motivators: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators
In considering about self-motivation, it is important to understand what motivates you to do something.
There are two principal sorts of motivators: ‘intrinsic’ and ‘extrinsic’.
In their most simplistic fashion, you can think about these two sorts of motivation as:
Intrinsic = relevant to what we desire to do.
Extrinsic = relevant to what we ought to do.
A more detailed definition is:
Intrinsic
To perform an activity or task based on the anticipated or perceived comfort of performing the activity or task.
Intrinsic motivators involve having fun, being an interested, and personal challenge.
For Instance:
Sally works because she adores what she does; she gets tremendous satisfaction and self-fulfillment from her job.
Sally has sufficient money put away that she does not need to work; she maintains her house outright and can manage to buy what she desires when she wants it.
Sally’s motivators are purely intrinsic.
Extrinsic
To complete an action or task to attain some external reward, including wealth, power and good marks or grades, etc.
Diverse people are motivated by diverse things and at diverse times in their lives.
For Instance:
John works because he has to meet his mortgage and support himself and his family.
He gets no pleasure from his job, and there is no prospect of promotion.
John’s motivators are solely extrinsic.
Deduction
The same task may have added intrinsic motivators at specific times and larger extrinsic motivators at others, and most tasks have a blend of the two sorts of motivation.
Clearly, Sally and John are at separate ends of the self-motivation spectrum. Most personalities, however, fall someplace in the middle.
Most individuals do have to work to earn money.
Still, at the same time, they also find their day-to-day work life rewarding or gratifying in other intrinsic ways—job satisfaction and the opportunity to socialize with co-workers, for example.
We all tend to work better when we cherish what we are doing.
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It’s simpler to get out of bed in the morning, we are revelling in our work, and happier in general.
Research shows that this is especially significant when we’re under stress.
It’s much easier to cope with stress and long hours if we usually enjoy the work.
Intrinsic motivators, therefore, plays a big role in self-motivation for most of us.
The Importance of Obligation
What if a task has neither intrinsic nor extrinsic motivators?
The obvious outcome is that we are doubtful to do it because it will be useless.
We all know it doesn’t perpetually work like that. There is an additional issue: feelings of responsibility/obligation.
Obligation motivators are not rigidly, either intrinsic or extrinsic but can still be very powerful.
The obligation arises from our personal ethics and sense of duty, what is correct, and what is incorrect.
You may feel compelled to go to a party because you were invited by somebody you recognise – there will be no visible extrinsic or intrinsic advantage to you attending, but you may fret that you will hurt or agitate your friend if you don’t go.
You are more likely to enjoy the party, though, if you go with a positive and open attitude, assuming it to be fun.
One Step at a Time…
Enhancing yourself to be self-motivated, or even merely improving your self-motivation a little, will not happen overnight.
There are various skills involved, and you cannot assume to develop them all immediately.
However, a greater understanding of the factors of motivation, and especially how they relate together, should assist in increasing your skills.
Just reminisce, Rome was not built in a day: think about making progress over a long time period and in small steps.
