Why Asking How to Motivate Yourself is the Wrong Question to Start With
Asking how to motivate yourself seems like a reasonable question. However, part of the reason why you’re having trouble motivating yourself is how you are thinking about motivation.
In essence, the question “how do I motivate myself” implies that the motivation you need will come from something external. This external motivation will then energize you to do something you don’t want to do to get something you want to have. You are centering your thought process on the outcome you want, but the reality is that you don’t enjoy doing the work that gets you that outcome.
The trick to figuring out how to motivate yourself is to flip your mindset around. You must work on changing your mindset from an outcome mindset to a process mindset. Your motivation can no longer come from the outcome you want. Instead, you must find what brings you joy in the process of working towards that outcome.
So instead of asking how to motivate yourself, ask yourself the following:
“How can I enjoy the process of working towards what I want so I look forward to doing it?”
Motivate Yourself Using Your Strengths and Personality Type
The best way to do this is to understand your strengths and personality type. For strengths, I suggest you start by taking the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment, then read the report that comes with it to understand how you can leverage your strengths in your process. It’s a fact that you’re at your best when you’re doing what you’re best at, and that’s using your strengths. What’s more, when your process leverages your strengths, motivation is effortless.
For your personality type I suggest you understand which one of the 5 big personality traits you best fit.
- Openness: People who are dominant in the openness personality trait are curious, have imagination, and show ingenuity.
- Conscientiousness: People who are dominant in the conscientiousness personality trait have strong organization skills and have a tendency for perfectionism.
- Extroversion: People who are dominant in the extroversion personality trait are outgoing, energetic, and talkative.
- Agreeableness: People who are dominant in the agreeableness personality trait are highly cooperative with others, considerate, generous, forgiving and trusting.
- Neuroticism: People who are dominant in the neuroticism personality trait are emotional and have a tendency of being moody.
There are several different assessments for personality, and I can’t say one is better than another. With my clients I use a version of the Newcastle personality assessor.
Once you are self-aware about your strengths and personality you are on your way to self-motivation. Self-motivation is when you enjoy the process of working towards the outcomes you want as much or more as the actual outcome. This is the secret for motivating yourself.
If you or someone you know needs help with this process of moving from self-awareness to self-motivation, let’s talk about how my coaching program can help. Contact me here.