Monday 1 December 2014

Week 9 [01.12-07.12.14] Motivation

What is motivation?

In my opinion it's desire to do something what you have marked as your target to do.

There are two types of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Here is the definition of intrinsic motivation " motivation that source comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards or punishments" created by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (Source http://www.motivationraising.com/sources-of-motivation/). Motivation is mostly influenced by our inner-needs and our emotions. Below we can see Maslow ‘s pyramid of needs:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow
Here you can see our basic emotions:
 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrasting_and_categorization_of_emotions

Now we should talk about the second type of motivation and here is the definition of extrinsic motivation "motivation that source comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external and outside the learner. It can be a reward, like getting a good grade, or a punishment, like failing the exam" created by Paul Burden. (Source: http://www.motivationraising.com/sources-of-motivation/) Usually extrinsic motivation is used by third persons to motivate us for example in places like school, work, shops etc.. You may know this type of motivation as "a carrot and stick" method.


Source: https://erakablog.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/carrot-stick.jpg

Motivation is one of most important things in our lives you need it almost everywhere. If you want to achieve something , you need to be motivated to avoid temptations and pass obstacles, otherwise you might fail . We have many obstacles in our way to target and probably the biggest one of them is our mind. I'm sure most of you doing something hard heard some small voice in your head telling you to stop, that you are not good enough to do it, that it will be easier to leave it or to do something else like play computer games, watch TV .


Source: http://psychotherapist-nyc.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-changes-dealing-with-inner-voice.html

During those moments it's necessary to be motivated enough and to remember about goals, otherwise you will be devoured by that kind of thoughts and eventually you will quit.





Motivation techniques.

There are many different techniques to self-motivate. Here you can see some of them:



About mentioned techniques you can read more here.

I have also my own technique to be motivated by. My technique is quite simple,  every day after waking up and breakfast I watch/listen motivational speeches on youtube. This gives me a boost for the whole day. I would also recommend this method to you. If you want to try it,  you should watch/listen to Les Brown’s and Allan Watt’s speeches. Here you can find some of them:
 Les Brown:

  
Allan Watts:




Questions:
  1. How do you motivate yourself?
  2. Are you motivated enough to achieve anything you really want in life? 
  3. What do you want to achieve in your life? 


Sources:


  • http://www.svtuition.org/2014/08/10-ways-to-self-motivate.html
  • http://psychotherapist-nyc.blogspot.com/2009/08/making-changes-dealing-with-inner-voice.html
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrasting_and_categorization_of_emotions
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow


14 comments:

  1. I always listen to music to motivate myself becuase it is a good way to start any kind of work. When I'm drawing I love to look at someones art, how they are drawing or just watching tutorials made by them.
    When I'm looking for inspirspiration I want to try new way and try do it myself.
    All my life I try to motivate myself to achive my goals and I work hard to get it. There is no such thing as beeing motivated for the rest of live.
    There are a lot of things I want to achive but I know that I need to work hard to reach my goals. I don't want to say what it is because I don't want to jinx it ;)

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  2. It is very hard to motive yourself in long-term. My motivation are my plans for life. I have thousand of doubts everyday, but then I am trying to see how my life will look like when my plans will work out and how when then won’t. The other important factor for me is always having plan B.

    I have read motivational books many times, you may say that what is written there is obvious, but many times we forget about basic thing in rush. Sometimes the best thing is to talk with your friend. They see your life from different perspective and can give you advice.

    From my experience you can not be over-motivated. Instead it might happen that watching someone who is way better then you or you are compared to someone may break your faith in success.

    To sum up the motivation have two components - habits and discipline. It is never easy to achieve huge things but sweet smell of success is priceless.

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  3. Personally, I definately prefer the "carrot" method over the "stick" one. I think it's much more sensible, wise and healthy to encourage, show your belief in one's abilities and respect their work than punish them for their mistakes. This also creates a better atmosphere in a workplace. I wouldn't like my motivation to come from fear or pressure, but from will to feel appreciated and rewarded for my efforts.

    The same goes with self-motivation - I think it's much better for your mental health to reward yourself for your successes, not to punish or yourself for your failures.

    When it comes to techniques of motivation, I use a site called HabitRPG (https://habitrpg.com) and although some of you may find it silly, it's actually working :) I know there are several websites and phone apps meant to raise your motivation and I think they're worth a try ;)

    I'm not really into watching motivating videos like posted here. I'm glad they help lot of people become motivated, but to me they seem rather cheesy and I feel they are more a series of truisms and clichés than actual advice.

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  4. Katarzyna definitely has a point: you have t motivate yourself every day, because motivation is strong feeling but it is short-term. No one should expect to be super-motivated all the time. IT would only bring frustration. W all have our ups and downs, it's perfectly normal.
    What motivates me, are my plans for the future. Things that I began planning quite a few years ago – at that time my plans weren't really close to be put in practice but as the graduation day is approaching they are getting more and more real.
    That is the best motivation: looking at what one has already achieved and thinking what more can be done !

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  5. Katarzyna Przybysz like you have noticed listening to music is also quite good technique to motivate especially when your neighbor from upstairs drills all days and you have to do something to school or work.

    Patrycja Marciniak this website is really great and useful. At my specialization "game programming" our teacher were using something similar for completed task we were rewarded in exp. Here you can see it. It was funny that our grades system were based on exp.

    I understand that your personal task are your personal matter, but I would like to hear something about it maybe I would start my first goal is to start my own business by creating it I want to gain financial independence and after that I would like to try myself at politics, because I want to change our present state of our country to something better.

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  6. I have real problem with self-motivation. I do see the goals and what I can achieve, but it is not that important for me. Especially when I will be reworded somewhere in the future, not hear and now. I think if I do not have someone standing next to me with so-called "stick", I would not be able to complete the most important projects that I'm doing right now. On the other hand I have no problem reaching non important goals like preparing RPG campaign for my friends or something like that. So yeah... I have a little problem with self-motivation :P

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  7. I have a little problem with self-motivation. I have a lot of plans and goals to achieve, but quite often I change a start date that will allow me to achieve success. For me the best way to motivate is 'stick and carrot' method. When I have a deadline, it is easier for me to start working.

    HabitRPG metioned by Patrycja is great. I started to use it and won my first exp :) It is very nice idea to combine online game with daily activities. I hope that this game will improve my self-motivation.

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  8. I heard that one of significant way to motivate yourself is to make a plan with small steps involved and systematically enter them into life. What is more I know the idea of rewarding yourself for the small achievements you make. Personally I always listen to music or motivational speech in the morning to give myself a positive energy for the whole day.

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  9. Personally I consider sports as the most motivating factor in my life. After a really hard and demanding workout I feel like I could do anything I’d want to, I could be anyone I’d like to. I know that for someone motivation is also needed to begin exercising but sport was present during my whole life so it just comes naturally for me to go for a run even after really busy day. It’s amazing how much energy you’ve got after such an activity, even if you were so sleepy and exhausted before. When I do my best at one field, automatically it’s going better on others. It’s like one success makes me want to reach another goal. I’ve got a few quite simple aims, probably similar to the ones of majority: to get a well-paid job, which will be compatible with my interests so I’d enjoy it, to constantly develop myself and never give up. I think that the greatest achievement is to be happy in life and that’s what I’m reaching for, because it’s not that simple as it sounds.

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  10. I make a plan for a week or a month. - that is how I motivate myself. My plans include more important issues and also these littlest things to do. I have satisfaction, when I see how many issues is ticked. It makes me ready to tackle the rest of them.

    I'm not motivated enough to achieve anything I want. I still work on myself, but I think I'm on the right path. I always explain myself, that everything I want is in my head, so it's ready to realise. I reccomend Joseph's Murphy book "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind", a must have for everyone, who's going to take effect.

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  11. At least 1 person had courage to share with us own personal goals bravo for Tomasz Gelo. I hope that you will achieve everything what you really want in your life. Tomasz you created a habit to exercise and this is one of the best motivation technique, because when you create a habit in doing something and this moments usually takes place after about 2-3 weeks of constantly doing something day by day from the beginning, your body will automatically demands to do it. I know that from my own personal experience.

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  12. If I have to do something I really despite or don't want to do I motivate myself with simple "do it as fast as you can so you don't have to have it in your mind". But if it comes to higher things like achieving something in my life I motivate myself with satisfaciotn which I can get, with making people who care about me pride of me. Also if it comes to work I often get inspired and motivated by others (graphic designers, film makers, writers and many others).

    I'm motivated to do a lot of things in my life and never stop developing.
    I hope that nothing ever will happen to me that could stop motivation to act.

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  13. We need motivation for everyday life. Some time ago I tried motivating myself watching various films and reading books. However it was sufficient only for some time. Very soon I gave over all my considerations related to what I have learnt. Now I have another opinion – the best motivator or even a good adviser is family, that is why despite the distance between us I, nevertheless, try to speak with them every day.
    Perhaps as everyone of us I would also like to have a family, financial stability, good health, as well as to be happy. Of course I have a few more dreams but I will rather keep them secret :)

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  14. If you want to achieve or have something first of all you have to accomplish 3 things. You have to really want it, you have to think about it all the time and the most important you have to Do! meaning work towards the goal. YOu have to be pushing your self to the goal even if its really far away and even if it takes a long period of time. The most important target for me is happy and healthy family.

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