What would you do to fulfill your heart’s desire? To achieve success? To get what you want? Whether as a last resort, need to get past being “stuck” either way, we all make a conscious decisions to obtain or achieve something we want. The key ingredient all these have in common is motivation. Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act, whether it getting a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge. It involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that activate behavior. In everyday usage, the term motivation is frequently used to describe what a person does something, for instance like a lot of people are motivated to get a different job, complete their educational goals etc.
There are three major components to motivation: activation, persistent and intensity, Activation involves the decision to initiate a behavior, such as enrolling here at a college class. Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even though obstacles may exist such as investment of time, energy and resources. Finally, intensity can be seen in the concentration and vigor that goes into pursing a goal.
Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic
Different types of motivation are described as extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic motivations are those come from outside of the individual and often involves rewards such as money, trophies, social recognition or praise. Intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within the individual, such as solving a cross-word puzzle purely for the personal gratification of solving a problem.
Achievement motivated individuals have a strong desire to accomplish something important and gain gratification from success in demanding tasks. Then there are failure-avoiding individuals who are more focused on protecting themselves from the embarrassment and a sense of incompetence that can accompany failed at a valued task. Consequently they are less likely to attempt achievement-oriented tasks. The reality is most of us fall somewhere in the middle. The core belief of achievement motivated individuals are
1. Success is your responsibility
2. Demanding tasks are opportunities
3. Achievement striving is enjoyable
4. Achievement striving is valuable
5. Skills can always be improved
6. Persistence works
5 ways to raise your motivation level:
1. Increase the challenge of your project-try something new.
2. Change your creative method (for instance if you typically write with an outline, try not to.
3. Create from a different point of view always write in first person, try second person.
4. Look deeper to find your intrinsic motivation.
5. Finally forget about the goal and have fun!
Hypnotherapy is completely confidential with adherence to the Ethical Guidelines of the American Counseling Association regarding conduct of counseling therapists. My private practice is restricted to vocational and/or ad vocational self-improvement. Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.