The 5-Minute Guide To Discovering What Motivates Us

If motivation was a commodity that can be packaged into a bottle, it will be flying off the shelves. Everyone will be buying it. No mat-ter how expensive it gets, there will always be a demand for it. But unfortunately, motivation is not a commodity. If we want constant motivation, then we need to look deep within us and discover what really, truly motivates us.

There are two kinds of motivation. The first one is intrinsic motivation – these are motivational factors that come from within you. For example, you’re driven to succeed because you want to prove something to yourself.

If you’ve failed in the same endeavor before, and you’re tired of telling people you’ll never succeed, you just want to go out there and prove everybody wrong. That’s intrinsic motivation right there.

It’s the more powerful type of motivation because it comes from deep within you. It’s not dependent on external factors, rather it’s the hunger and the fire deep within you that’s driving you to reach for your dreams.

The second kind of motivation is extrinsic motivation. These are the external motivators that push you to do your best. Extrinsic motivators come in the form of reward and punishment.

For example, you’re working hard to become the “employee of the year” because you want that all-expenses-paid-trip to Australia as your reward.

With regard to using punishment as a motivator, you don’t want to end up at the bottom of your company’s sales ladder because the punishment is you’ll get a demotion.

Rewards and punishments work best for short-term goals, however, for long-term goals, it’s much better to have intrinsic motivators in place. With intrinsic motivators, you’ve got that passion burning inside you. It’s going to keep on burning long after the extrinsic motivators have come and gone.

Let me show you an example:

For instance, you’re good at sports, maybe basketball, football, or whatever your favorite sport is. Your ultimate goal is to become the best at that particular sport.

In the beginning, you’re aiming to win as many medals and trophies as you can. You’re motivated by the money. But when you begin your rise to superstardom, the money and the awards become secondary.

You don’t even compete for those anymore. You’ve got all the medals and awards one can hope for. You don’t care about the money you’re making. You only care about the sport now.

You keep on playing, you keep on competing because you want to prove to everybody that you’re the best in the sport. You’ve got that fire within you that wants to show the world there’s no better player in the sport than you.

So, how do you discover what motivates you in life?

First, you have to know what you’re passionate about. It has to be something you can do all day, something you truly love and enjoy. Even if it’s physically tiring, if you enjoy it you don’t mind the pain at all. Think hard. Is it playing your favorite sports, is it a hobby, or something else?

When you’re passionate about something, you’re willing to put in the work. But it doesn’t feel like work because you love it. You’re willing to take a pay cut because you love doing it.

Let’s say you’re presented with two options: a job with a $50,000 salary and a second job with an $80,000 salary. Both come with full benefits. The first job may have a low starting pay, but it’s something you’re passionate about. You know you’re going to love it. The second job offers much higher pay, but you know you won’t enjoy it as much.

Depending on your situation, you may say you’ll go for the second job. Money is money, after all, it’s a great motivator. That extra $30,000 can buy you nice things. But if you’re going to be stressed all the time at the second job, is that extra cash worth it?

Now, if you’re motivated by passion and not money, then you’ll probably go for the first job. $50K is still a good amount, you’ll be able to live comfortably (of course, this will also depend on where you live and your lifestyle choices). You know you’ll learn a lot at this job. Because it’s in an industry you’re passionate about, you’ll be more motivated to be productive at work.

You won’t drag your feet in the morning, you’ll be excited to go to work. Your passion will allow you to see plenty of opportunities. Simply put, you’ll be able to grow as a person in a job you’re pas-sionate about.

Another way to find out what motivates you is to ask yourself what you want to share with the world. Is it your music? Your art? Your talent? Something else you’re particularly good at?

If you love sharing your knowledge with the people around you, then perhaps you’re motivated by teaching. In this case, you may want to consider teaching. Maybe not in a professional setting, but perhaps you’d like to hold classes online. Or you can create a course and sell it to students online. You can also give out free tutorials on YouTube and upsell your paid courses.
If you love doing things like that and you enjoy the process of re-cording your courses, then you may have found your passion. It may start off as a hobby, but when your courses start gaining popularity, then it may lead to more opportunities for you.

Look around you, what do you enjoy doing the most? What hobbies do you have that you can think you can make a living off of? Do you love singing? Do you love playing the piano? You can upload your videos and your music online, too. You just need to think outside the box, so you’ll succeed and reach your goals.

Another method to find out what motivates you is to determine what kind of legacy you want to leave behind. What do you want to be most known for?

We spend a limited time on earth, but our actions leave an impact on our family, our friends, our community, and everyone we’ve shared space with. When we’re gone, we want to be remembered.

The question is, what do you want to be remembered for? In other words, what is your purpose in life?

Not everyone really cares about finding what their purpose in life is. Most people are content with just going through the motions of living their day to day lives. They don’t care to think about what’s going to happen to them next year, the next decade, and they especially don’t care about what their legacy is going to be.

It’s great if you’re considering what your legacy is going to be. It will help you live your life according to your purpose, it will help you set goals that will help you achieve your legacy.

Your purpose in life will be your driving force within. When life gets tough, and obstacles stand in your path to success, you’re not going to back down easily.

In fact, you’re not going to go down without a fight. You’ll give it all you’ve got. You’re determined and highly motivated to succeed. That’s your legacy, after all.

The next method is asking yourself what you’re willing to sacrifice for. Are you willing to let go of some pleasures and luxuries just so you can chase what you’re passionate about? The moment you find that something that you’re willing to sacrifice for, you’ve found what motivates you.

You may find yourself inconvenienced at first, but when you remind yourself why you’re making the sacrifice, you’ll ultimately be appeased. You’ll eventually get used to the changes you’ve imposed on yourself. And you’ll feel so much freer and so much happier because you’re finally doing something you love.

For instance, if you’re an artist, you are obviously motivated by your art. You love the feelings it evokes in you everytime you finish a painting. You feel happy, you feel accomplished, you feel proud.

In the beginning, your art may not fetch crazy prices in the market, and you’re forced to sacrifice many things you’ve grown accustomed to just so you can pursue your passion.

Your family is probably berating you for turning down so many job offers, your friends are questioning your sanity. But you don’t care because you’re still making a living even though it’s not enough for you to live a lavish lifestyle.
So you bootstrap, you live a simple life, it doesn’t matter to you. It’s your art that makes you happy. It’s what sustains you in your day to day life.

Just thinking about the alternative – working a job you know you’re going to hate – is enough to get you depressed. You won’t be productive there anyway because you simply have no interest in taking up any job that’s not related to art.

So, that’s basically how knowing what you’re willing to sacrifice everything for is going to help you understand what motivates you. Not everyone will have the courage to sacrifice and possibly earn their loved ones’ ire.

In cases like this, you may want to surround yourself with some positive people who will encourage you instead of trying to scare you off your dreams. Of course, being realistic about your situation is important too.
Being optimistic is different from being a dreamer who’s disconnected with the real world.

We often hear stories of people who give up everything to chase their passion and ultimately end up failing spectacularly. That’s because they failed to assess their situations, specifically their finances. They didn’t realize that they would have no means of surviving on their own if their dreams didn’t take off.

A healthy dose of reality is important, too, so keep that in mind when it comes to what you’re willing to sacrifice for. It can backfire on you, and that may lead to you permanently backing away from your dreams and your goals in life. It will lead to you becoming desensitized, you’re just not going to care anymore about your dreams. That’s just sad – I’m sure you wouldn’t want to leave that kind of legacy behind.

It’s also important to mention here that over the course of time, your motivation may wane. You may be overwhelmed with the things that happen in your daily life. You may forget why you’re doing what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for.
You may even start asking questions like, what am I doing? Have I been chasing the wrong path all this time? You may feel like you’ve wasted a lot of time doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing in the first place.

At times like these, you need to evaluate yourself. You need to reassess your values. You need to recall your “why.” Perhaps you got side-tracked, and you’ve somehow lost sight of your original goals.

You may have been excited about chasing your passion a decade ago, you’ve gone about working your way towards your goals. But a few years in, you get married, you start a family, and you lose sight of your dreams.

It’s okay to put your dreams on hold – it’s not going to complain. But the moment you’re free, you need to get back on track if you ever want to succeed.

Rekindle your passion. It’s never too late to restart chasing your dreams. As the popular saying goes, better late than never.

This is why you sometimes come across inspiring stories of people who’ve graduated from school decades after they’re supposed to. Life happened to them, and they had to stop chasing their goals. But the moment the opportunity came back for them to chase their goals again, they went back to school.

So, you see, it’s never too late. For as long as you’ve got a breath in you, fight back. That’s how you succeed in life.