How To Find Motivation When You Have NONE
Actually, everyone DOES want to work. We’re built to find meaning through work, so how do we cope when motivation disappears?
Actually, Everyone Does Want To Work
There are countless lies that “society” conditions us to believe. In a way, the Spiritually Inspired podcast/Susbtack is exposing each of them in turn. One by one. Dismantling the establishment through the lens of magic and mindfulness.
However, these lies about the human psyche are damaging and oppressive. They are continuously perpetuated on purpose to make change or growth seem impossible.
The one that’s currently pissing me off the most is this:
“No one wants to work.”
Or, similarly:
“No one would work if they had the choice.”
Both of these statements are damn dirty lies.
And I don’t just mean in a political, supposed “labor shortage” context. I also mean in a psychological, fundamentally human context.
I can feel my cheeks getting red from frustration and I’ve barely even started. So I apologize if I come off as quite passionate about this topic.
But I feel very strongly that we have it all wrong. That the big businesses and governing bodies are designed to be demotivating, and the people who run them are well aware of this fact and are purposely not doing anything about it.
Humans are naturally creative and driven. Our instinct is to explore and see what we can make. We are inherently motivated to act. That is the default state of a human.
So how come so many of us struggle to do the most basic things? Let alone the big things. That’s what I want to talk about in this post today.
How to find motivation when you have none, and how you likely got there in the first place. If you feel highly driven and ambitious, or have all but given up on taking action, this episode is for you. Read on.
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How To Get Motivated
This is another episode inspired by another awesome book that I highly recommend. It’s a psychology book that mainly focuses on workplace and business motivation, however it’s extremely applicable to our spiritual awakenings (and indeed all areas of life).
The book is called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink.
I was blown away by this one. I originally checked it out at the library because a beautiful client of mine was struggling with motivation, with the hope that I would learn a few things that could improve my ability to coach her.
She said to me, “I know what I should be doing, I simply don’t do it and I can’t figure out why. I can’t bring myself to take action on any of the plans I make.”
After our sessions together, she finally felt confident and motivated enough to take the leap towards her manifestations. It was amazing to witness the transformation from completely unmotivated to ambitious, and even accomplished. Her manifestations came barrelling into her life at full speed after that.
So what changed?
It’s simple. We just decided to focus on intrinsic motivators instead of extrinsic motivators.
Affirmations for Going Through Change: Reiki-infused guided meditation with soothing background music as we recite supportive affirmations. Click here!
Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation
Which turns out to be eerily similar to switching between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, which I have talked about extensively on this podcast (specifically episode 121).
Being intrinsically motivated puts emphasis on the joy of the activity itself, rather than on any potential rewards gained from doing it.
We want to be intrinsically motivated because that’s where true fulfillment, enjoyment, happiness, and peace exist.
Motivation isn’t elusive, not intrinsically. There’s just some blocks in the way, and all we have to do is clear them. Easy! Starting with:
1. Ditch rewards and punishments
This goes against nearly all standard operating procedures in systemized organizations. We’re all expecting some kind of reward or punishment if/when we do certain things.
And many people believe the only way to be motivated to do anything at all is if we get some kind of reward for doing.
“If I work eight hours, then I earn $160. If I complete all my chores, then I get to eat a candy bar. If I come in first place, then I get a trophy.”
But psychological studies of human behavior are proving this to be false. In fact, 128 of them are showing that tangible rewards have a substantially negative effect on intrinsic motivation.
“If-then” rewards actually decrease motivation, satisfaction, and creativity.
Eventually, these rewards become the only reason to act, which completely squishes all our intrinsic motivation (meaning we no longer feel any kind of joy or fulfillment from the thing).
And eventually, the rewards will have to get bigger because otherwise motivation dips even more. Which continues the cycle of external motivation.
2. Focus on the long term
“If-then” rewards encourage short-term thinking only. What we need to be happy, successful, and fulfilled in life is long-term thinking.
This also helps us be more mindful about what we’re spending our time doing. “Does this support my long-term vision?”
It’s fine to be motivated by instant gratification sometimes. There are studies that show if-then rewards are quite successful in the short-term when used to complete repetitive tasks that require no creativity.
But the second we step beyond the mundane tasks and into the more inspired tasks, we want to be thinking of the big picture.
3. Engage more freely
Autonomy is key in motivation. It has to be your choice to engage. This was my biggest takeaway from the book Drive because it really spoke to what I feel the workforce needs most right now.
We want to find those perfect “goldy locks tasks” that aren’t too easy or too challenge. Where the challenge is exciting and not daunting.
“One source of frustration in the workplace is the frequent mismatch between what people must do and what people can do. When what they must do exceeds their capabilities, the result is anxiety. When what they must do falls short of their capabilities, the result is boredom. But when the match is just right, the results can be glorious.” – Daniel Pink
When we’re free to choose how we spend our time and energy, we’ll inevitably spend it doing something that brings us joy. Or at least something that brings a sliver of happiness.
“If-then” rewards require people to give up a portion of their autonomy, which is a major motivation killer.
Humans want to be engaged. It’s part of our design. When that desire leaves us, we’re left feeling very empty and helpless.
Even if it seems small, make it a point to freely engage in your favorite activities for the pure sake of enjoyment.
You’ll be shocked at how quickly your motivation fills back up when you’re the one in charge of what you’re doing and creating.
Lack of Motivation Causes
As I mentioned before, my client was feeling very unmotivated to take action on her manifestation dreams. Do you relate to that right now?
Somewhere along the way, the joy has been lost. Whatever rewards we may have received in the past no longer hold the same value. There’s no reason to chase after a reward you don’t truly want.
At the end of the day, what all humans want is happiness, fulfillment, love and acceptance. These things don’t come from extrinsic influences. They come from intrinsic satisfactions.
If you’re feeling a total lack of motivation in any capacity, I highly encourage you to engage in some activity just for the pure joy of it. Let go of expectations and overly strict instructions. Give yourself permission to play!
According to Pink and the 128 psychological studies he reviewed for a better understanding of human motivation, if we have autonomy over our time, our tasks, our technique, and our team, our intrinsic motivation gets a natural boost.
I thought this part of the book was really interesting. It resonated deeply because I felt the truth of it within my own experiences. So let’s break this down.
Autonomy
Autonomy is everyone’s most prized possession. As soon as we start losing our autonomy, our freedom of choice, stress and anxiety set in. Among many other painful emotions, because losing our autonomy means losing a piece of our humanness.
Everyone has free will, this is a Law of the Universe. However, our modern society is deliberately set up in such a way that individuals are left with little to no choice in many matters.
This idea is ultimately where the idea of “no one would work if they didn’t have to” came from. People were coerced into taking full time jobs they didn’t necessarily want, all of which squandered their motivation, so of course they wouldn't do them if they didn’t have to.
Obviously that’s not true. Humans are intrinsically motivated, but only when it’s something that matters to them. And when they’re not constantly worrying about other things like paying the bills or facing toxic people or doing tasks they despise.
When people feel safe and comfortable, they naturally find something to work on. Something they care about. So it’s not entirely true to say that people wouldn’t work if they had the choice.
It’s more accurate to say people wouldn’t work on things they don’t care about if they had the choice, but they do anyway because they’re in a culture that requires the “rewards” reaped from doing that mundane work.
Four T’s
If we have autonomy over our time, our tasks, our technique, and our team, we can accomplish anything.
Choosing what we do, how we do it, when we do it, and who we do it is the ideal situation, isn’t it?
This isn’t just some optimistic dream that’s only possible for wealthy people. This is a new way of looking at our human needs so we can meet them and be happier, more fulfilled, motivated, all the things!
You might not realize it yet because you’re SO used to lacking autonomy, but you have plenty of opportunities to mold your obligations to suit your freedom needs.
I have had multiple clients negotiate a four day work week successfully. I once transferred departments completely at work because it was a better fit, and there was zero resistance. I’ve known people to completely rewrite their company procedures because they found their own way of completing the work more efficiently.
I challenge you to look around at where you feel the most oppressed, and get creative on how you can improve the external situation. Ironically, that will improve your intrinsic motivation by eliminating a lot of stress factors.
Manifesting Autonomy
I’m now working on manifesting more autonomy in my life. Autonomy over my time, over my projects and how I get things done, and over who I do it with.
All because those are the four T’s all humans deserve to have so they can cultivate intrinsic motivation. Time, tasks, technique and team. (Remember that Drive speaks directly to business owners and managers, but the idea is perfectly transferable).
When I was in high school, I took all the journalism classes because I loved writing and the teacher, and I was part of the school’s newspaper as well. Never once did I care what my grades were in those classes, because all four of the autonomy T’s were being met for me. So the grade wasn’t motivating me in the slightest. I cared only about doing fantastic work on the projects.
The journalism/English teacher (who was such a role model for me!) was also the teacher that led the newspaper club. She nurtured these intrinsic motivators, and as a result I learned so much.
I had freedom over how I spent my time in the journalism classes and during the club meetings, especially as I eventually because editor of the paper 😎
I also had freedom over my technique. She taught me the skill of newspaper column writing, then cut me loose.
I had so much fun experimenting with different ways of finding and creating stories, and I vividly remember doing all that work so many years later.
I had freedom over my team because I helped recruit new writers for the paper, which of course were my friends! Being surrounded by people I like being with made the work even more enjoyable.
So I’m using this experience to tap into the energy of autonomy I want to cultivate more of in my life now. I remember how it feels to be swimming with intrinsic motivation, even if I had no idea that term even existed until this year.
And now I want to invite you to consider doing the same. How can you cultivate more autonomy, freedom of choice, in your life? What’s violating your autonomy right now, and how can you remove it?