At the end of January 2022 in London, I had the pleasure of giving lectures about... motivation, for training participants as part of the Women's Academy project for the Polish Psychologists' Association.
Let whoever has not given up on his New Year's resolution at least once cast the first stone. We like to plan and live in hope that this time we will succeed, the weight will start to drop in the new year, the gym membership will finally be actively used, and we will feel like the best version of ourselves. And then January 5 comes and... we don't feel like it anymore. Motivation begins to decline as quickly as our self-esteem. And here the questions arise: How to motivate yourself? How to find out? What reward should you set for yourself?
I can't answer this question... because motivation is an individual thing, and some people will be motivated by better well-being, while others will be motivated by the envious glances of their friends..
What I can do is explain to you what (more or less) motivation is (less so - because motivation is an extensive topic about which academic textbooks have been written. If you are interested, you will find more detailed sources of knowledge at the end in the bibliography).
There are over a hundred definitions of motivation
First of all, let's start with this motivation is a process. This is not a one-time resolution. To motivate yourself, you need to know why I want this to do.
This is a phenomenon that we often discuss during psychological consultations. Because therapy is also a process that requires motivation.
We distinguish three types of motivation:
As you can see, motivation is something that can not only drive us to succeed, but can also motivate us to avoid failure. The best example is studying before an exam. I hear "I'm afraid I won't pass" much more often than "I'm afraid I won't pass well enough." In therapy, this may refer to "I don't want my symptoms to come back", but also "I want to feel better".
Ask yourself what You do you want from your therapy? What motivates you to persevere?
Motivation in the change process also has its functions
- Energy arousal - the level of human arousal changes, starting from very low activation, typical of the sleep state, to very high, typical of very strong motivation or even affect. The stronger the activation, the greater the amount of energy expended in carrying out some action. It is worth remembering to divide your resources according to strength.
- Direction – Thanks to it, our behavior is focused on achieving a certain goal. Motivation ensures that our pursuit of the goal is characterized by certain constancy and while pursuing the goal we are not distracted by various side factors.
- Sustaining action – Once a certain motivated action is initiated, it continues until the individual achieves the goal in front of him. A highly motivated person can pursue a goal despite the existence of obstacles or factors that prevent the goal from being achieved at a given moment.
- Valuation – There are many potential goals in our environment that could be achieved. Motivation (in the dispositional sense) determines which goals are considered important and which are secondary.
Motivation is not constant, its intensity changes under the influence of external factors. It is usually strongest in the first phase arousing energy. During therapy, a normal process is a decrease in the level of motivation, then this state should be discussed with the therapist to better understand where we are at, whether the motive for therapy has changed or whether the therapy is going in the right direction.
How to help yourself with motivation?
Not every action requires immediate therapy. What you can do for yourself is:
- Avoid procrastination - set yourself a time to complete the task, if you fail three times, think about whether the goal is important to you?
- Plan your next activities – if, for example, it is going to the gym, plan what exercises you will do or how many calories you want to burn.
- Starting with the least enjoyable things – motivation is usually strongest at the beginning of an activity, so doing the difficult things first will make it easier to complete the task.
- Give yourself time and let go of the pressure - unless it's a deadline at work, allow yourself to spread your resources over time. Don't push too hard or put pressure on yourself.
- Reevaluate your thinking - from thinking "I have to, but I don't want to", it is better to adopt the perspective: "I don't really have to do anything, but I really want to."
Bibliography: Łukaszewski, W. and Doliński, D. (2000). Mechanisms underlying motivation. In: J. Strelau (ed.), Psychology. Academic handbook, volume II (pp. 441-468). Gdańsk: GWP.