The Key to Self-Motivation: Self-Awareness About What Gives You Energy
As famed psychologist and author Edward Deci’s research suggest, “motivation is the energy for action“. With this in mind, the key to self-motivation is therefore the ability to recognize what gives you energy.
Desiring something but not having the energy to do it is a common problem for both kids and adults. It’s easy to start on a cycle of negative self-talk when what you have a misalignment between the outcome you want and your motivation to stick with the process to get it. To eliminate this negative self-talk, I suggest you take the definition of motivation and reverse engineer it to discover your source of energy for self-motivation.
Instead of focusing on the outcome you want first, focus on what gives you energy first. To do this figure out what activities innately give you energy and dissect all the reasons why. Once you have these insights, create a process that capitalizes on what gives you energy.
Essentially this flips the equation around. The takeaway is that lack of motivation is usually not the problem. Typically, the problem is being motivated to do activities that don’t lead to the outcomes you want. Correspondingly, the answer is self-awareness and practicality.
This means being self-aware about what drives energy, and then being practical about following a process that’s realistic as it relates to what provides you with the energy for action.
In short, there are three things to remember as you seek energy for self-motivation.
- The first step for self-motivation comes from developing a burning desire to do something not have something.
- The more you enjoy the process of doing, the fewer negative thoughts you will have about not having.
- Don’t fight against your innate desires. Instead, understand those desires beyond the surface level and then direct that understanding into a process.