Chapter 13 - Motivation

From Getting Results | The Book

“The first and best victory is to conquer self.”—Plato, Greek Philosopher

In This Chapter

Learn how to improve your motivation and self-discipline through a compelling “Why,” vision, and outcomes.
Learn the key pitfalls that work against your motivation.
Learn the key factors that influence your motivation.

Motivation is the “Why” behind the goal. It’s your little engine that says you can, when the rest of you says you can’t. It’s also the same force that on a good day can help you move mountains. Motivation is a life-long skill that you can improve through self-awareness and proven strategies. The better you know your own drivers and levers, the more effective you’ll be at getting the results you want in your life.

Then there’s self-discipline: the ability to correct your behavior. (Self-discipline is simply correcting or regulating your behavior for the sake of improvement. Will is based on thinking and reason to create action. Motivation is rooted in emotion.) It helps you get back on course when you fall off your path. When inclined to do otherwise, self-discipline helps you do the right thing in the moment for your long-term benefit. According to Stephen Covey, “Only the disciplined are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites, and passions.” Self-discipline is a muscle that gets stronger the more you flex it.

Motivation and self-discipline work hand in hand. Motivation can be your initial inspiration. Lose your initial inspiration and self-discipline keeps you going. But to commit to self-discipline, it’s your initial motivation that convinces you it’s worth it.

One of the most important things I realized is that motivation can come from your thoughts, feelings, or your body. You might think yourself into something. You might feel motivated, perhaps inspired by your thoughts. Or your body might motivate you, as a seasoned runner feels the urge to go running. On the other hand, self-discipline is only ever driven from your thinking. Success reinforces your self-discipline. The most important point about self-discipline is that you don’t talk yourself into it, it’s a decision. You simply decide. And how do you decide? Your motivation.

Motivational Quotes

Quotes reflect the wisdom of the ages. Some people have an amazing way with words. The right quote can lift you up and get you back on track when you need it. Great wordsmiths have given us powerful perspectives on motivation and self-discipline. Here are a handful of my favorite quotes:

“You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger.”—John C. Maxwell
“Fall seven times. Stand up eight.”—Japanese Proverb
“It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.”—Vince Lombardi
“The price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret.”—Nido Qubein
“Motivation is the fuel necessary to keep the human engine running.”—Zig Ziglar
“Happiness comes when you believe in what you are doing, know what you are doing, and love what you are doing.”—Brian Tracy

Pain and Pleasure

Pain and pleasure are the keys to motivation. When you really want something, you’ll find a way. Likewise, when you really want to avoid something, you’ll find a way. You’ll go further out of your way to avoid pain than gain pleasure. It’s a survival mechanism. When your basic needs are unmet, you feel pain. That pain drives you to survive. Once your basic needs are met, you seek to thrive. This includes reducing pain, while seeking pleasure.

Pleasure

You can’t always talk yourself into liking something. You have to pay attention to your emotional response. For example, you might know that working out is good for you and you would think that should be enough to enjoy it. The problem is, that’s only at the intellectual level. Physically, you might feel a lot of pain. One common technique is to listen to your favorite songs. Listening to your favorite songs or power songs helps you link pleasure.

Pain

If there’s something you want to do, but won’t, then you’ve associated more pain with doing it than not doing it. Whether it’s the fear of rejection or the fear of failure, it’s pain. The memory of past pain and anticipation of future pain are also key aspects. In-the-now pain can make you stop, but usually it's rooted in the past or future (i.e., in your head). Whether it’s real pain or imagined, whether it’s physical, emotional, or mental, it’s pain. It could be a timing issue. Your perceived pain now might outweigh your perceived pleasure down the line. If there’s something you keep doing, but logically it doesn’t make sense, you’re either getting pleasure from it or avoiding pain. Gradually, you slide towards things that feel good and away from things that don’t. This is why you might talk yourself into working out, but if you don’t find a way to enjoy it, it’s easy to slide out of it.

Compelling “Why,” Vision, and Outcomes

Your compelling “Why,” vision, and outcomes support you on your path to results. If you want to make something happen, have a compelling “Why.” Make it your cause. A compelling vision is a scene you can easily conjure with the end in mind—it’s how the world will be different. A good test is whether you can draw your vision. It’s like having a finish line. The outcomes are the results you will experience. You can think of your vision as the future picture, and your outcomes as the details or highlights of the scene.

Compelling “Why”

Why are you doing this? If you don’t have a reason you feel strongly about, chances you may give up in the face of resistance. Have a compelling “Why” to help you get back up if you get knocked down. It’s your single best tool to keep you going. Whenever you start out on a path, you might have a fuzzy picture of the end in mind. Your “Why” will help guide you through. One common reason people give up on their goals is that the why wasn’t important enough. They didn’t emotionally connect with it. It might have looked good on paper, but it wasn’t compelling. Additionally, your compelling why may lead to a compelling vision. Sometimes it’s easy, or it may take some work. You may have to get creative. Difficulty discovering a compelling “Why” may be an indicator that there’s something else you’d rather spend your time on.

Compelling Vision

It’s easier to stay motivated if you see the end in mind. A vision of the end in mind, especially a compelling one, is a tool to help you stay the course. Sometimes your compelling vision creates a compelling “Why.” If you really like the end in mind, the why becomes obvious and lets you latch onto it. A friend of mine used a movie technique to finish an Iron Man competition. He visualized watching himself on the screen of his favorite theater. In his mental movie he would see himself running his upcoming race. He added a lot of details to make it vivid: his film is shot high from a helicopter with his favorite announcers calling out his name as he crosses the finish line. He attributes visualizing his success as a movie to his actual success in the race.

Compelling Outcomes

An outcome is the end result. Tasks and activities are the means to get there. Some outcomes are more valuable than others. Value is in the eye of the beholder; that’s why, at work, you line up value against business objectives and the culture of your tribe, team or group (i.e., know what the group values). Think of outcomes as sets of results you want to achieve. Don't settle for a fuzzy notion of results; make it as precise as possible. Imagine results that you can see, hear, feel, and touch.

10 Pitfalls of Motivation

There are many common myths and some bad practices that take away your motivation. Another key is to know your own patterns and anti-patterns. Anti-patterns are simply bad patterns, or examples of how not to do things. Understanding all these pitfalls helps avoid them.

Waiting for Inspiration. Don’t wait. Motivation follows action. Imagine if athletes only practiced on days they felt inspired. The rigor of their routines gives them their inspiration. Some days are better than others, but when inspiration happens they’re ready to act on it. Develop routines that are easy to stick with and that give you chances to grow your skill and be your best. The more you practice, the more your skills evolve from intellectual, to emotional, until they are finally integrated into your body. You must set yourself up for flow opportunities or being “in the zone” to happen.
Analysis Paralysis. Don’t fall into the trap of analysis paralysis. It's a common way to get yourself stuck, spending too much time on the problem instead of the solution. If you’re spending 80 percent of your time mulling on the problem and only 20 percent working on the solution, then flip it. Few problems can withstand sustained action that builds momentum and confidence.
Perfectionism. Don’t let perfection get in the way of good enough. Perfection comes in many forms. You might think that you’re not good enough or smart enough. You might think the work is not good enough. One way to fight perfectionism is to call the work an experiment. Another way is to work one version at a time. For example, do a first version of the work as a rough cut, then clean it up in the next version, and so on, improving each time. Timeboxing is another way to help fight perfectionism. By giving yourself time limits, you do your best with the time you have. Give your best and focus on the learning.
Churning. It’s easy to burn yourself out if you continually go round and round on a problem without making progress or if find yourself solving the same or similar problems repeatedly. Excitement and energy comes from learning and growing, not spinning your wheels. When you are stuck, try a new approach; see if you can redefine the problem, tackle one piece of it, or find a mentor. Be careful; it’s important that you also recognize the difference between churning and a problem that just takes time. Some problems require chipping away at the stone; it may not seem like much, but your constant action gradually wears it down, until finally you breakthrough.
Lack of Boundaries. Have you noticed when you push yourself past your limits you lose energy fast? This could be anything from staying up too late, to waiting too long to eat, to over-sustained thinking. Set limits and use them to keep yourself fresh.
Choosing the Wrong Motivation. Don’t let the wrong motivation take you off track. Remember that goals are a vehicle, a means to an end. The power of goals is that you grow while you stretch to reach them. Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. Periodically check your direction against where you want to be. Don't invest your time, energy, and resources only to find out your ladder was up against the wrong wall.
Overwhelming Yourself. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Instead, take smaller bites and finish faster. This builds momentum. Don’t create your own walls that you can’t scale by overloading yourself. A simple way to break this pattern is to start simple and achieve success. Incremental success becomes a habit.
Beating Yourself Up. Don’t burden yourself with past defeats. Pick yourself up when you fail—it's OK. Be wary of “should” thinking, another easy trap to fall into. Instead, focus on the vital things toward achieving your best results.
Watching the Scoreboard. It’s good to know the score, but don’t let that be your focus. Your focus should be on one pitch at a time. When you focus on the task at hand, giving it your best, you set yourself up for improved performance. Focusing on the scoreboard is a way to create anxiety without improving. Focus on your current level of play, and take the scoreboard as feedback. Use it to improve, but don’t let it become a distraction.
Death by a Thousand Paper Cuts. Friction in your daily routines builds up over time. All this friction adds up, slowing you down, and wasting precious mental energy. These little things stop people far more often than larger forces, yet usually go unseen. At first you might not notice any friction in your initial burst of enthusiasm and inspiration. But inspired action only takes you so far. By noticing friction (even minor ones) early on, you can nip it in the bud while you still have momentum. Set yourself up for success by creating glide-paths for your most important routines. Focus on the Hot Spots in your routines to reduce a little friction each day. This adds up to great improvement over time.

10 Key Strategies for Motivation

When the problem is motivation, you need some time-tested tools to help you get going. Here are ten key strategies for motivation:

See the End in Mind. You need to know when you’re done as well as what good results look like. You might not have the “perfect” map from point A to point B, but at least know your destination. Don't just vaguely imagine it—see it in your mind’s eye. A good test is if you can draw your vision or concisely tell others what you’re trying to accomplish. It’s easier to stay the course when you can see the finish line. And it’s also easier to keep going when know that you will like where you’re going. Course corrections are easier and more accurate when you know your progress toward your destination.
Make it Meaningful. Having a purpose, a compelling one, is key to driving results. Sometimes it’s as simple as redefining your purpose when your original purpose isn’t working. Use the right metaphor. Frame it in a compelling way. Redefine it. Is it a mountain or a mole-hill? Are you on a mission? Sometimes all it takes is the right emotional picture word to give new meaning to your activity.
Use Pain and Pleasure to Get Leverage. Make it painful not to do it. Make it pleasurable to do it. Find a way to enjoy it. Rely on passion and in finding ways to enjoy doing what's good for you, not on discipline. Link tasks to pleasure. Change how you feel about the stuff you do. Don’t just assume you’ll automatically like something over time, ensure it will happen. You can help it along by finding a more compelling reason or associating fun things, such as by playing your favorite songs.
Master Self-Discipline. Flex your self-discipline muscles. Some things are a trade-off: pay now or pay later. Self-discipline is often about trading away pleasure now (or even accepting some pain) for pleasing results later. Make resistance your friend—it makes you stronger.
Make It a Routine. Instead of discipline, use routine. You don’t have to make yourself work too hard every time. Use checklists to improve. Focus on the learning. Master your craft. Bootstrap your routines by creating glide paths or simple ways to start.
Set Boundaries. Set a quota. Use timeboxes to limit the amount you do or to create time for short burst work. You can also use time boundaries to limit or compartmentalize pain. For example, if you have a bunch of activities that drain you, consolidate and batch them for an hour in the morning to get them out of the way. Another part to setting boundaries is having a fixed time for eating, sleeping, and working out—this is an extremely common success pattern. The sum of establishing these three routines is more than the parts because these three activities support each other. Having a routine for them helps you learn your energy patterns; your body also learns what to expect. For example, what you think is a motivation issue may really be a lack of sleep. Sometimes, it’s simply because you don’t eat at regular intervals that you lose energy. Working out often helps people sleep better and eat better.
Build Momentum. Set Incremental hurdles. Success builds momentum. One of the simplest ways to get into this pattern is to start with something simple that will lead to success. Incremental success becomes a habit.
Take Action. Motivation usually follows action, not the other way around. You’ll also find that if you put in the hours, you’ll have more chances for inspiration. Take full advantage of those inspirations when they occur.
Reward Effort Over Performance. You can control your effort, but not results. So focus on rewarding the effort and performance will follow in time. By focusing on what you control, you teach yourself to consistently give your best, independent of the outcome. This raises your level of skill and sets you up for more positive outcomes.
Team up. One of the most effective ways to find motivation is to team up with somebody. Find somebody who complements your strengths. If you’re a Starter, find a Finisher. If you’re a Maximizer (somebody who goes for completeness), find a Simplifier (somebody who simplifies). If you can, find somebody who’s been there or done that before. Their experience can save you a lot of wasted time or energy. They can benefit honing their skill and leveraging experience, while learning something new along the way. You need to make it mutually beneficial to sustain it.

Self-Awareness is Your Best Strategy

Self-awareness is your best strategy for motivation. You need to know what makes you tick. You gain this self-knowledge through reflection, asking the right questions, and paying attention to your patterns. The more you know yourself, the better you can drive your own results. Observe which techniques work for you and which don't. For example

Do you like to work alone or with others?
Does your encouragement come from internal or external factors?
Do you know how to switch hats to switch your mindsets?
Do you know your energy drains and your catalysts?
Do you know how to use more meaningful metaphors?

20 Key Factors for Motivation

What you don’t know can hurt you, or at least work against you. While the simple model of motivation is based on pain and pleasure, you can master motivation by understanding what influences it.

I’ve outlined twenty key factors that can unleash a more motivated you. Some of these you can control more than others, but total awareness is critical. Paying attention to these factors sheds light on what is and isn't working for you in various scenarios. You have to know what you’re looking for in order to see it. Use these factors as a new lens for uncovering what might be blocking you right now, or even over a lifetime. You need to experiment and learn what works best for you. Knowledge truly becomes power when applied to motivation. Here are the factors:

Pain and Pleasure. A simple model to think of motivation is pain and pleasure. We move towards pleasure and away from pain. Pain avoidance usually trumps pleasure seeking.
Needs. You must satisfy your basic needs before moving up the stack. In other words, you’ll do more to get food and shelter before seeking out higher level goals.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation. Intrinsic motivation is how you motivate yourself by your thoughts, feelings and self-talk. For example, your reward might be the satisfaction of a job well done. Extrinsic motivations are external carrots and sticks, such as praise, money, or fear of punishment. For sustainable results, try to link things to intrinsic motivation and values.
Attribution. Do you attribute your success to things you control and your competency, or do you think it’s beyond your control and just luck?
Competence vs. Chance. If you attribute your success to things you control, you’ll prefer work based on your own competence. If you attribute your success to external factors, you’ll prefer work that’s based on competence and chance.
Values. The more you value something, the more motivated you will be to achieve it. You cannot be motivated by something you don’t value.
Passion. Passion is your inner fire and the best fuel to get results. You can either chase the passion you know or find passion in what you already do. Knowing your preferences, strengths, and skills, helps to find your passion. You often have to look for the passion, but also know when it just isn't there and move on.
Resistance. Resistance makes you stronger. But too much can also demotivate you if it creates too much pain or stops you in your tracks. When you workout, knowing that the resistance is making you stronger enables you to enjoy the pain or at least tolerate it better.
Mindsets and Metaphors. The mindsets and metaphors you choose are the filters that shape your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. For example, do you feel more motivated when you’re on a “quest” or just doing the “daily grind”? Are you “mastering your craft” or just “putting in your time”? Are you “standing strong when tested” or just getting “beat down”?
Thoughts. Your thoughts create your feelings. This is why your self-talk or how you visualize something can either motivate or demotivate you.
Feelings. If you enjoy how something feels, you’ll do it more. If you don’t like how it feels, you’ll do it less. You might be aware of how you feel or you might not even notice it. It’s tough to keep doing something if it doesn’t make you feel good either in the moment, or if you can’t imagine the benefit in the future, or if you don’t value the long-term benefit. Link things to good feelings for sustainable results.
Body. Your body can help you or work against you in terms of motivation. The three key activities that support each other are eating, sleeping, and exercise. One of the non-obvious threats to motivation is a lack of sleep. If you’re not at your best, test your sleep patterns by sleeping different durations and noticing the impact. If you want something badly enough, your passion can overrule your body, but that’s not sustainable. On the flip side, you can eat right, sleep right, and be in great shape, but without passion, you might not feel very motivated. Here’s the surprise—action can come before motivation, and you’re more likely to take action when you’re body has the power it needs.
People. Do the people you spend your time with usually catalyze or drain you? Pay attention to the people and interactions that give you energy and take it away. Consider changing the people or changing how you interact.
Tasks. Do the tasks you work on catalyze or drain you? Do you look forward to them or drag your feet? Pay attention to the tasks you work on. Some will make you strong, while others will make you weak. Consider change the tasks or changing your attitude about the task.
Workspace. If you have a place for things and things in their place, your mind is freed up for better things. Give yourself a glide path for results by reducing little frictions that get in your way.
Work style. Most people have a preference, but might not be aware of it, unless you think about it or experiment. There are three basic patterns: (1) you only like to work on your own thing; (2) you like to work on shared tasks as part of a group; or (3) you like to work on your own thing, but within a group. Find your best fit and try to work within that style. Don't accept work you will have to do in a style you aren't well suited for.
Culture. Culture is the shared values of a group. It’s what they value by actions, not by words. For example, you might value results over process, but the culture at work might value process over results. Work that isn’t valued will be difficult to get motivated for if you are externally driven. If your motivation is internally driven, it’s less of a problem, but it’s still an issue for you. Ideally, work within a culture that matches your values.
Introverted vs. Extroverted. If you’re introverted, you prefer to think first and then act. You derive most of your energy inwardly from ideas and concepts. You likely prefer work you can do alone that requires concentration. In contrast, if you’re extroverted, you probably prefer to act first and think later. You draw energy largely from other people or from things. Your motivation mostly comes from other people.
Short-term View and Long-term View. Some people have an easier time trading long-term gain for short-term pain than others who demand immediate gratification. Ideally, learn to master both. Work at finding ways to make things more enjoyable in the present and so you don’t depend purely on a long-term. Find ways to work for the long-term where slow and steady wins the race.
Skill Variety, Task Identity, and Task Significance. Consider the meaningfulness of your work. Skill variety is the range of skills you need to perform your task. Task identity is the notion of a task as a whole, identifiable unit of work. Task significance is about how much the task means to others. These three factors often influence your motivation and ultimate satisfaction in a task.

In Summary

Know your own drivers and levers; the better you know them, the more effective you'll be.
Practice self-discipline; it’s a muscle that gets stronger the more you flex it.
Be aware of your thoughts, your feelings, and your body—it’s where motivation comes from.
Have a compelling vision of the end in mind.
Have a compelling “Why” to help remind you of your mission and deal with resistance.
Know the key pitfalls of motivation so you can avoid them.
Know the key strategies for motivation so that you can motivate yourself more effectively.
Know the key factors for motivation so that you can troubleshoot motivation issues more effectively, as well as use the right tool for the job.