How to motivate yourself: 5 time-tested approaches

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

From the pyramid of needs to the hedonistic theory of motivation, humankind has come up with many ways to motivate ourselves to achieve goals.

What is motivation? Simply put, it is a motivation for action. Unfortunately, so far no one has found an unequivocally better motivation for a person, one that could prompt everyone to take action.

From the point of view of science, they became interested in motivation in the 50s of the last century, in the era of the development of post-industrial society. Then all the classical theories of motivation were formulated. Their goal was to motivate the person to work effectively.

Today, the ideas of those years began to be used not only for corporate, but also for personal purposes. I want to talk about these classic theories and how they can help you in your daily life.

So how did scientists explain our motivation?

Motivation is a need and everyone has the same need

The oldest and most famous theory of motivation is Maslow's theory of needs. The American humanist psychologist began by identifying five groups of needs that every person has:

1. Physiological needs.
2. The need for security.
3. The need for socialization.
4. The need for respect.
5. The need for self-expression.

Maslow said that a person's motivation depends on the satisfaction of these needs (and in a strict order). In other words, until you feel completely safe, communication will not interest you. Or, until you are successful in your relationships with people, you will not demand respect from them.

This theory has several disadvantages. For example, Maslow argued that absolutely everyone has the desire to move towards a higher need - self-expression. That is, you cannot one day just stop at the level of socialization and enjoy what you have. You will definitely want creativity and fame.

Agree, the idea that everyone wants to develop continuously sounds utopian (it was not for nothing that Maslow was the founder of humanistic psychology). Nevertheless, many scientists have developed this theory, changing the pyramid of needs and refining details.

For example, psychologist Clayton Alderfer created his theory of needs, adding two important features. First, he grouped all needs into three groups:

1. The needs of existence.
2. Communication needs.
3. Growth needs.

Second, Alderfer was the first to say that we will not move towards more complex needs if they seem too difficult to achieve. It seems to me that this is more like our real attitude towards goals.

How to use it?

If you have a goal, you should:

• determine which category of needs it belongs to;
• satisfy the needs at all previous steps to the maximum.

If Maslow was right, this is how you succeed.

Motivation is a need, and everyone's needs are different

American psychologist David McClelland developed Maslow's theory in a different way. First, he agreed that all needs are inherent in us from birth, but we satisfy them in a different order. Life experience teaches us which needs are more important and which ones can be relegated to the background. Therefore, one is more important than relationship, another - glory, and the third - safety and solitude.

Secondly, there are only three needs that can guide human actions in McClelland's theory:

1. Achievement needs are the desire to be independent and to be responsible for your choices.
2. Complicity needs - the desire to be loved or to be part of a group.
3. The needs of power are the desire to influence the people around them.

McClelland's theory is closer to modern man, because it takes into account the diversity of life experience of each of us.

How to use it?

Unlike Maslow's theory, this takes time to introspection. First, determine which of the three needs you are guided by more often.

For example, do you play sports because you want to receive some kind of reward (achievement) for it? Or is it because everyone is athletic (complicity) in your environment? Or do you want to prove your strength and become more attractive (power)?

After that, in order to develop new habits or, conversely, get rid of old ones, you must be guided by this need.

For example, you want to quit smoking. According to McClelland, you have three options:

1. Create an attractive reward for yourself for maintaining a healthy lifestyle (achievement).
2. Find people with similar experiences and ask them for advice or quit a bad habit with someone else (complicity).
3. Turn everything into an argument to prove your willpower (power).

Decide which approach is most appealing to you and take action.

Motivation is expectations

Canadian psychologist Victor Vroom agreed that people have similar needs, but argued that they satisfy them in different ways. Someone decides to lose weight with an exercise bike, and someone buys "wonderful" pills. To get rich, some will work hard and some will try to gamble. What then does the choice of method depend on? From expectations!

According to Vroom's theory, our motivation for action depends on:

• expectations that the result is achievable ("Can I get off the couch?");
• expectations that we will receive a reward for the result (“Will I get a sandwich if I get up from the couch?”);
• expectations that the reward will be valuable ("Do I need this sandwich?").

If the answer to all three questions is yes, the person will act.

Vroom's theory is still popular today because it provides convenient criteria: the goal must be achievable and guarantee a result that will be truly valuable to us.

How to use it?

Select the goal you want to achieve and evaluate it according to Vroom's criteria.

1. Are you sure you can reach your goal? Have you thought about how to do this? Do you know what problems and difficulties you will face in the process?
2. Are you sure these efforts will lead to results? How can you prove it to yourself?
3. Is the result you can get really valuable to you? Will it be valuable in the future? In a year? Five years?

Detailed answers to these questions will form the basis of your motivation to achieve your goal. Or they will prove that you do not need this goal.

Motivation is the environment

My favorite theory of motivation. Social psychologist Frederick Herzberg accepted Maslow's assertion that every person has innate needs, and McClelland's assertion that the importance of these needs is determined by the person's personal experience. The question Herzberg asked was this: Why do many people understand their needs, but do not want to achieve their goals?

Frederic Herzberg argued that it is possible to know the needs of specific people, but it is still ineffective to motivate them if there is no suitable environment for this. What forms this environment, he called "hygienic factors." In corporate motivation, he attributed to these factors:

• working conditions;
• relationships with the team;
• wages;
• administrative policy of the company.

If we talk about everyday goals, then only two factors will remain important: the conditions of work on the goal and the people who surround us.

Our environment is constantly sending us signals that we stick to a certain habit or, conversely, abandon it. In other words, it is harder to quit smoking around people who smoke like a steam train, and it is easier to start exercising around athletes.

How to use it?

If you know exactly what you want, create an environment that will help you achieve what you want. Answer two groups of questions:

1. What will constantly remind me of the goal? What in my environment prevents its achievement? How can I fix this?
2. Who can help me achieve what I want? Do I need a support team? Coach, mentor, advisor? How do people around me affect my results?

The environment shows how much we are able to show our potential. If we work with this environment, improve it, our possibilities will also open up.

Motivation is fun

Not so much a full-fledged theory as a synthesis of the ideas of psychology and philosophy. Unofficially, this theory is called hedonistic, and the psychiatrist Carl Jung had the greatest influence on it.

Jung outlined a simple pattern: our behavior is determined by the emotion that follows the action. If the action brings us pleasure, we repeat it; if not, we quit.

In fact, the hedonistic theory of motivation can be contrasted with the theory of expectations. Vroom suggests creating an expectation that actions will bring positive results and testing them. Jung simplifies everything: do not wait, check in practice. And if you like the process, continue.

Do you like to play sports? Get busy! Stop liking your job? Choose another one!

I agree, it sounds somewhat childish, but in the end a person devotes his time only to what he likes, and is surrounded by people who bring him joy. It seems to me that this is quite enough for happiness.

How to use it?

Test all your desires in practice and see if they bring pleasure. If you want to learn how to play the guitar, but it turns out that strumming the strings or learning chords only brings suffering, then try something else.

At first it will be like throwing yourself from one to the other, but eventually you will settle for something that will bring long-term pleasure.

So far, no one has given a universal answer how we can motivate ourselves. I have cited popular theories that have been tested by time and are used in various forms in management, sports and psychology.

All that is left for you is to test them in practice and understand which one is right for you.