How To Get And Stay Motivated

Ever wonder what Anna Karenina has to do with your motivation to show up and work toward your goals?

(Besides the serious amount of motivation you need to tackle 800 pages of Russian literature, of course.)

It’s right there in the opening lines. You may have heard them before.

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

In that, a happy family is one that has satisfied a few fundamental aspects - like good health, financial stability, and mutual affection (or tolerance, if there are a lot of teenagers in the household). 

There is a strong parallel here to motivation. 

When we’re feeling motivated toward our goal (I’m going to get that raise! I’m going to run that marathon! I’m going to lose that weight!), we are happy as we progress along. 

Losing that motivation, however, is a more painful story. 

We don’t want to get out of bed to make it to work on time. 

We’ve hit the wall in our marathon training and we skip a few days. 

It doesn’t feel like the scale reflects our dieting efforts, so we take our cheat day a little early this week.

When we lose our motivation, there are a few things we can do. Often, we look for new ways to get motivated.

We read articles on getting motivated and staying motivated, the essence of motivation, or even how to keep working when you’re just not feeling it. These can all be useful if you’re looking for ways to design goals, find more effective rewards, and keep progressing.

Still, there is something fundamental missing here.

Motivation is a driving force toward our future. We can agree on that.

But it’s defining the kind of motivation that will help us get there. Like when we say ‘go for a drive’ and we get the idea of the expression. To actually go for a drive, though, we have to step into a car or truck or bus of some sort.

Knowing the vehicle is what allows us to actually get to the place.

Likewise, knowing the motivation allows us to better get to our goal.

That’s what we’re after by defining our types of motivation. Instead of chasing after the ideal of motivation, figuring out the kind will make it easier to understand why we’re lacking motivation - and how to change it.

Motivation is often divided into two major groups: intrinsic and extrinsic. 

From there, we can further categorize six types of intrinsic motivation and three types of extrinsic motivation.

When you figure out what’s really driving you, getting to where you want to go becomes that much clearer.

Intrinsic motivation is the kind of motivation that makes you feel good inside. Fuzzy, we know. 

Intrinsic motivation generates internal rewards, like a sense of accomplishment, of progress, or of self-esteem.

Or, heck, even fun!

You likely recognize in your own days some activities that you are intrinsically motivated to do, even without subjecting them to the idea of “I don’t feel *motivated* to do this.” 

Some examples of intrinsic motivation in action:

• Mastering a new recipe
• Playing games
• Learning a new skill
• Taking a class
• Investing to become financially independent

Extrinsic motivation is related to the driving factors outside of ourselves. These motivations can be categorized as compensation and punishment.

(Charming categories, we know.)

This is what compensation can look like:

• Salary
• Bonuses
• Rewards
• Money
• Goods
• Trophies
• Praise

As it concerns extrinsic motivation, punishments take the form of:

• Fines
• Blame
• Judgment
• Criticism
• Loss of compensation (money, trophies, etc.)

Whether your aim is to gain the compensation or to avoid the punishment, you can see how the pressure coming from outside affects your motivation.

What they both have in common is the chance to be positive or negative. This depends on your own mindset or the circumstances you find yourself in.

They differ in a few key areas. Intrinsic motivation is harder to stimulate than extrinsic motivation, which is boosted automatically by the reward (or the lack of punishment). Still, it can be longer-lasting and more durable (the lifelong pursuit of a creative hobby, for example), as extrinsic motivations (like your yearly bonus) are more fleeting.

By now, you should have a general idea of what kind of motivation you’re looking at. Let’s take a deeper look now at the six kinds of motivations driven by our own desires.

Achievement Motivation

Achievement motivation is fueled by the desire to attain a specific goal, position, or title. 

In that sense, achievement motivation is often considered one of the drivers of personal development. In the professional world, it’s aiming for a promotion because it signifies a height reached, not a financial goal. With sports, it could be aiming for your own personal record. 

Similar to competence motivation, too, could be the drive to get a degree or a certification. It’s an achievement that is driven by an internal quest for more knowledge.

(And if you feel seen when talking about achievement motivation, you might like our In Real Life Achievement coins!)

Despite there being just three categories, we’ll recognize ourselves in many of these.

Fear-Based Motivation

Fear-based motivation is fueled by the desire not to fail. 

It is not necessarily negative, though often considered to be. It is also at play with the avoidance of pain or awkward feelings. 

You can recognize this kind of motivation in the workplace, for example. If everyone stays until a certain time each day just in case their boss calls, regardless of whether there is work to be done, then there is fear-based motivation in play. It’s not about working harder, it’s just about the fear of an awkward, uncomfortable interaction.

Power-Based Motivation

Power-based motivation is fueled by the desire to have some control over other people.

Though it can be construed as negative (the controlling personality), it is also the motivation that leads to leadership.

Several of the situations we’ve discussed, like taking additional classes to learn more or staying late for fear of the boss, could be shown as power-based motivation if the goal of learning more or staying late was to move up the company’s ladder and end up with a higher position.

Reward-Based Motivation

Reward-based motivation is fueled by the desire to get something for our extra effort.

For employees, that could be a bonus offer in their salary. For us as individuals, it could be the weekend movie we promise ourselves for spending five days at the gym during the week.

As effective as this kind of motivation is, it is fleeting. Once the reward is achieved, it’s often necessary to modify or increase the reward to create the same kind of motivation.

Now, let’s return to the idea in the beginning. Looking to get and stay motivated? This is why it helps to know what kind of motivation you’re dealing with.

Because if you’re not feeling motivated, it’s possible that the reasons behind your motivation have changed. With that, it might make sense for the activity to change too.

Consider these three examples:

1. Have you stopped reading books since you left your last job? Maybe you were more motivated by the inclusion in your company’s book club (affiliate motivation) than by Murakami’s collected works (competence motivation).
2. Have you hit a wall in your book writing since you ran out of ideas? Maybe you were more motivated by the idea of finishing a book (achievement motivation) than by expressing those ideas (creative motivation).
3. Or, have you had trouble showing up at work on time since you were passed over for a promotion? Maybe you were more motivated in the past by a strict manager (fear motivation) than by getting a new position (power motivation).

By understanding the source of your motivation, you can see why your interest may be waning.

Armed with that knowledge, you’ll be in a great position to do the work to ignite your motivation again.