Six Ways to Achieve Self-Motivation
Luis Fernando Sánchez
Organizational
Development Consultant
Executive
and Team Coach
HUELLA – Organization Ddevelopment, President
For many years I have worked helping
companies manage employee motivation. The typical approach has been to offer
different approaches for managers and supervisors to motivate their people.
These tools have gone from the establishment of goals, through different
approaches to the reinforcement of behavior, to the unleashing of intrinsic
motivation. These programs have been really successful; however, there has been
a powerful element missing: getting individuals to manage their own motivation.
In
recent times, as a result of a process of personal growth, I have come across
the importance of the personal responsibility of every individual to manage
their own motivation. Consequently, I have been modifying the paradigm of
motivation that I offer to companies, to incorporate the element of personal
responsibility in the subject of motivation. I have found surprising results,
especially in individuals considered mediocre, or for whom nobody would have
bet anything.
The
discovery of one's motivation can radically change a person's work experience
(and life in general), especially when, as part of the process, this person
discovers a purpose for his life.
When
I speak of motivation, I refer to the intensity, direction and persistence of
an individual's effort to achieve a goal or to undertake a direction in his
life. Motivation refers to focused energy; we must be careful not to confuse
this concept with "satisfaction", which is a correlated variable, but
with different implications.
Based
on the above, I built a model to improve self-motivation. Any element that is worked on will have an
impact on the motivational energy; however, when working several, the results
will be much better.
This
is the model:
These
are the elements to work with:
1.
Purpose
The purpose is the raison d'etre for
a person's life; it is your "what for", the meaning of your
existence. Discovering the purpose
requires connecting with spirituality, with values, with vocation. The purpose
is usually associated with some form of service for others or for society.
In some way, the purpose has always
been there, and the job is to discover it so that it can be carried out. By
doing so, great energy will be unleashed, and it will be understood why certain
activities and projects have been characterized by the passion they generate in
the individual.
Clarity of purpose aligns the
different areas of life, rearranges priorities, focusing efforts and generates
a great peace in making career decisions.
Western culture, with its values,
hinders the discovery of purpose. Therefore, it is important to guide people so
that they can find this essential direction for their life.
2.
Personal Vision
Personal vision is the dream that a
person wants and could reach. Creating a vision channels the energy to put
toward the future and guide efforts and short-term goals. Initially it may seem
utopian, but experience shows that when it is created and worked on, it gives
direction to personal projects towards their achievement. Those who seriously
work on their vision, and revisit it periodically using "creative
tension", usually reach it much sooner than they initially expected.
The work in this area consists
initially of visualizing the desired future for one's life, without concern for
"what they will say". The vision includes the different areas of
life: career, love, family, spirituality, health and body, social and community
life, finances, and residence, among others. Once conceived, the job is to keep
it alive as a permanent challenge for the desired future.
Personal vision is particularly
powerful when associated with a purpose.
3.
Attitude
Attitude is a predisposition towards
something or towards someone. It can be positive, neutral or negative. All
people have different attitudes towards themselves, their tasks, their daily
activities, their work and life colleagues, and their life project. They tend
to be handled on an unconscious level, so to be able to work them, it is
important to bring them to consciousness.
Managing attitude is associated with
the strengthening of emotional intelligence. It requires a volitional act to
"choose" and maintain the attitude one wants to have. The awareness
of attitudes is vital for the ability to motivate oneself. In the
end, the person understands that he cannot always control what goes on outside
of him, but he can always control what goes on inside him.
A positive attitude generates
creative energy, so the work in this area is to bring to consciousness the
attitude that is needed at any given time, produce it and maintain it.
4.
Motivating position
In a perfect world, the tasks that an
individual perform in his position are in some way linked to his purpose, and the
work he performs helps him move towards his personal vision. If this were true,
almost all positions would motivate those who occupy them. The reality is that
this is not always the case. However, every worker can influence the design of his
position, seeking to participate in activities and add tasks that are more in
line with his personal interests (his purpose and vision).
To the above proposal, we must add
that many positions, by design, do not help generate motivation in those who
occupy them. According to the "Work characteristics model" of Hackman
and Oldham, a position will be intrinsically motivating when the occupant has a
positive experience about the meaning of his work, the responsibility for the
results he generates, and information about the actual results coming from the
work itself. This generates five critical dimensions to work with: the variety
of skills that are used in the work, the identity of the task (that is, that
the task is complete, not only a part of it), the importance of the task, the
autonomy at work, and the feedback received by the work itself.
The work in this area is to
influence the design of the position by the worker, seeking a better
association with its purpose and vision, and incorporating elements that make
your work generate motivation by the way it is designed.
5.
Positive energy
Motivation, as energy, feeds on the
sources from which it is taken. Therefore, the internal dialogue and the
influences of the environment can add or detract from the motivation. Internal
dialogue can be controlled through meditation, the use of affirmations, and
working on resilience. As in the attitude, in the construction of positive
energy there is a work of emotional intelligence and choice that can have a
great impact on the energy that each person generates. Cultivating positive
attitudes and thoughts, and visualizing the future with optimism are some of
the practices that generate the type of energy desired.
The influences of the environment
are varied and can affect energy levels: food, lifestyle (exercise, sleep
hours, changes in routine, etc.), family relationships, relationships and
social networks, television programs, and readings, among others. The work in
this field consists of choosing the sources of energy that have a positive
impact on mood, attitude, and life in general.
6.
Self-concept
The self-concept includes all the
beliefs that a person has of himself, that are important to him, and that are
relatively constant throughout the stages of life. It develops and changes over
time, but it does so slowly and selectively. It is based on past experiences,
on mandates of childhood, and on the meaning that the person gives to those experiences.
Once a self-perception is established as part of the self-concept, it will
affect the way the person experiences future situations.
From a motivation perspective, it is
especially interesting to explore limiting beliefs. These beliefs include all
the "I cannot", "I should not", and the negative labels
that a person assumes as his own. Limiting beliefs are a perception of reality
that prevents us from growing, developing as people or reaching all those
things that give us hope. They are not true, but since we have adapted them almost
always unconsciously, they become true norms for us. We incorporate them
through life, especially in our childhood, through experiences, opinions or
judgments about us.
Work in this area includes
discovering limiting beliefs, replacing them with new beliefs, reinforcing
self-esteem, and cultivating a successful and full-fledged person concept.
We
have developed different resources in training, coaching, and neurolinguistic
programming to work on self-motivation. These tools have been tested in
different industries in different countries. If you would like more information
about this program or other programs offered by our company, we invite you to
contact us or visit our website, www.huellado.com.
