- 1- Establish your rewards
- People who prefer extrinsic rewards:
- People who prefer intrinsic rewards:
- 2-Make sure that a job / activity / action well done leads to what you want
- 3-Set some goals
- 4-Establish a plan to achieve the objectives
In this article I will explain how to motivate you with a simple 4-point plan to remember and in which you will have to be persistent and responsible when complying with them. Motivation is a state that is not constant over time and that, depending on certain conditions, increases or decreases.
Therefore, you cannot always be motivated. It is normal that sometimes you do not feel motivated, you feel sad or listless. In those moments is when you have to stop to reflect, think why you are unmotivated and take actions to increase motivation again.
If you follow this plan with responsibility, persistence and courage, you will see big changes in your results and what you want to achieve in the short and medium term.
1- Establish your rewards
By this I mean what is the reward you want in exchange for your efforts, this is basic to learn how to motivate yourself and others. Stop and think what it is that guides you to work and strive.
The personal motivations are different from one person to another, some are guided more by personal fulfillment, others money, others to ascend and be in a high position within the company. Others value free time more…
To get the motivation that guides you toward getting what you want, you will have to work hard to give yourself the kind of rewards you want. Stop and think, get to know yourself and observe yourself to know what type of rewards you value the most.
There are generally two types of rewards; intrinsic (feeling good, proud, self-realized…) and extrinsic (money, prizes, compliments…).
One way to find out is with the following example. What is more important for you?
a-Your salary.
b-Feeling self-realized and that your work is interesting.
c-Learn new things.
d- Ability to promote.
If you have chosen a and d, you pursue the extrinsic rewards more and if, on the contrary, you prefer b and c, the intrinsic rewards motivate you more. This is just an example and will serve as a guide for you to reward yourself.
At this point we are going to make a distinction between people who follow extrinsic rewards and those who follow intrinsic:
People who prefer extrinsic rewards:
When you know which rewards can motivate you the most personally, you need to relate them to the level of performance you want to achieve.
For example:
If you want to run for 1 hour in a row and are more motivated by extrinsic rewards (for example money or going out), you will establish criteria like the following:
-10 minutes running: 1 euro to leave.
-20 minutes running: 5 euros.
-30 euros running: 10 euros.
-40 euros running: 15 euros.
-1 hour running: 20 euros.
The amounts you have to establish depending on what you want to achieve and your personal conditions. Of course this is an example and you can apply it to other activities (study, lose weight, save, sell…). It is recommended that you write the performance-reward relationship on a paper / agenda to be clear.
Very important: It is not enough that you make the relationship, you also have to be faithful to it and be constant until you surpass yourself and reach the levels of success you expect. If you have run for only 10 minutes it would be disproportionate to "give you" 20 euros when you go out.
If you do a fair performance-reward relationship and are faithful to it, you will be more successful and you will feel a greater personal motivation.
People who prefer intrinsic rewards:
If you are one of the people who prefer intrinsic rewards such as autonomy, freedom, possibilities for advancement, feeling respected, greater learning, responsibility, etc., you will need to restructure your work or the activity you are doing to get that reward.
If, for example, you are in a boring job where you depend on a boss and who does not give you responsibility and what you want is freedom, responsibility and autonomy, you will have to think about how to change within that same job or consider looking for another job. That way, in a position that gives you what you want, you will perform better, you will do it with more energy and you will be happier.
Other examples of people who are guided by extrinsic rewards and how we can achieve them are:
-Be promoted: choose to work in a company that allows you to promote and grow as a professional.
-Feeling responsible: become the leader of a team, ask for promotion, start a business.
-Have a safe job: make sure you enter a company that values and respects its employees and with a good contract.
-Feeling empowered to make decisions: have initiative, propose things to your superiors, undertake and make decisions.
2-Make sure that a job / activity / action well done leads to what you want
If, for example, you start a business and what you want is to make money and for your company to grow, you are not sure because we do not know if the business will be successful (at least in the short term and in most businesses).
That is why we make the list of relationships discussed in point 1. Make sure that you will get what you want after doing the action at the level you expect.
Examples:
-If you have put a relationship like: study for the exam - eat me a bag of potatoes, fulfill what you really want (in this case eat the bag of potatoes or what you most want at that moment and that you would not allow yourself without having acted as you would like). In this way, by giving yourself a reward, you will strengthen this relationship and greatly increase the chances of repeating the action again.
-Run 1 hour-watch the latest James Bond movie: don't be afraid of wasting the whole afternoon watching the movie; Give yourself that reward to reinforce the action of running.
Important: This personal motivation plan is to consolidate actions that we want to include in our way of being / behaving and that we find difficult to carry out.
To get motivated, it will be essential to understand personal motivations (extrinsic and intrinsic rewards) and to be responsible and persistent.
3-Set some goals
If you need motivation, it is surely to achieve some objective: pass exams, lose weight, improve your work performance, improve your personal relationships…
Having goals is essential to improve performance. If you don't know where you are going or what you want, how can you get anywhere or get something?
The objectives you set have to be:
- Specific.
- They have to have a deadline for compliance.
- That they inspire you, but at the same time feasible to achieve. Goals too difficult will demotivate you.
4-Establish a plan to achieve the objectives
You already know the rewards that you are going to get if you work hard, have goals and you need a plan to achieve them.
If you are pursuing a difficult goal and see it too far away, you are likely to be demotivated. To avoid this, you need to draw up a plan, step by step, week by week, and month by month. Every time you complete a step you will have to give yourself a reward.
A plan like this, step by step, will be more motivating and achievable.