Some weeks, we are motivated to take on the world and accomplish everything in our path. And other weeks, we sort of just fizzle. We come up short. We have nothing to show for that week. If you were looking at a chart, you’d see our life as several peaks and valleys, where one week we were super productive, and other weeks we fell off. Why is that? Why aren’t we constantly moving forward and upward? Why are those valleys occurring so often in life and how do we stop them? So often, when I ask people about those valleys, they usually tell me, “Yeah I had a bad week, I just wasn’t motivated,” or “Yeah I didn’t feel as driven, I don’t know what happened?” Drive and motivation are common themes of successful people, and often those most driven, most hungry, seem to be also very successful. In this post, let’s talk about the mechanics of drive so that you can modify it to work to your advantage.
Autonomy
Studies have shown that those who are driven have a large amount of autonomy in their work, meaning they are acting with choice. Lack of productivity resulted from lack of flexibility and empowerment and autonomy. Does that resonate with you at all? I know at my work, we are often barraged with bureaucracy and need approval for everything, that there doesn’t feel to be much autonomy at all. Contrary to my job, you look at places like Google which have their employees work 20% of their time on a side project. Why? Because this is where new and fresh ideas arise, from that experimental, fun, not so serious side of work. Remember, people are their best when they are acting on their terms. Allowing workers to spend time on a side project (of their choice) promotes this idea. JetBlue for example, allowed their customer service representatives to work from home, and told them they could take as long as they needed when on the phone with customers. This was completely opposite from other call centers, who were being strictly monitored and who provided scripts to read from, and told to get off the phone with the customer as soon as possible. It’s no surprise JetBlue always receives stunning customer service reviews. When you call a customer service representative from JetBlue, you are talking to someone who works from home, doesn’t follow a script, and is allowed to communicate as long as necessary with customers. Now, that’s an autonomous workplace.
Most workers are disengaged. As little as 2-3% are engaged.
Mastery
Are you into mastery? Or are you just a dabbler, someone who likes to dabble in a little of this, and a little of that, but never really masters anything? Those that are interested in getting better and better at something that matters are also more driven. There are three ways you can be work towards mastery:
(1) Mindset: Do you have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? Meaning, do you think life just is what it is, and you get dealt a bad hand because life just isn’t fair? Or do you always look for new ways to learn and grow, and become better.
(2) Grit: There are some things that are difficult in life, but you must push through and push past. Or do you just crumble and give up when a task becomes tough? You see this a lot with fundamentals. People hate practicing fundamentals because they’re boring, you’ve already learned them before, and there’s just no novelty. However, fundamentals is what makes excellence. It’s those that push past, and grit through the difficulties that eventually rise to the top
(3) Enjoy the Journey: We often are so goal-focused, that we forget the journey to the goal. Those that are interested in mastery, recognize the joy is the pursuit of the goal, rather than just obtaining or reaching something.
Purpose
When I am going to do something that matters when I am going to live my best life when I am going to make a difference in the world?
Those that are driven and most deeply motivated, have anchored themselves to something bigger than just themselves. It’s so easy to wake up to the alarm clock and hit the snooze button. Because, most of the time, we think, “I’m tired, screw this.” Notice how we always relate to “I” and “me.” When we focus on ourselves, it’s easy to let ourselves down. But when you think about somebody else and realize that your actions have a direct consequence towards them, then your goal becomes less about you, and more about purpose. Your goal becomes about serving those around you. It’s much more difficult to hit the snooze button when you’re thinking of the loved ones you’re letting down, rather than yourself being cuddled up next to your pillow.
The Wrap-Up
When looking at someone’s drive or motivation, evaluate and see if they have the three pillars that make-up drive: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If one of those areas is missing, you can bet that’s why they fell off one month, after having a really good month prior. To learn more about drive/motivation, please check out Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, where much of this information came from.
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