Inner Motivation, Part 2

Inner Motivation, Part 2

What is important to you? What makes your heart sing? What makes the time go by quickly? These are the tasks that you do that utilize your Inner Motivation. When we are absorbed in a task and the time flies by this is usually a task that motivates you. These tasks are followed by feelings of satisfaction, heartwarming pleasure, peacefulness, joyfulness and happiness. Intrinsically, these tasks are somehow deeply important to us so when we complete them we feel great.

The challenge this week is to notice the tasks you complete. Some will be fulfilling and some won’t be fulfilling. The goal is to notice the tasks that you get lost in doing and bring a smile to your face at the end of the day. These are the tasks that motivate you from the inside and are easy for you to complete. If you have tasks that don’t give you that feeling of satisfaction, our future goal will be to change how the tasks are completed or figure out how to delegate them to someone who will be motivated by them. However, this week we are just noticing the tasks and how we are motivated to complete them.

Value #2 Inner Motivation

To understand Inner Motivation one should start by understanding the different types of motivations. The top five (5) motivations are:

Utilitarian – meaning one prefers some practical or useful results to come from ones efforts, time, energy or money. People with this value are results oriented sometimes towards money, more productivity or better health. When people with high Utilitarian value volunteer, they want to see practical results to their efforts.

Altruism – someone who values service to others to benefit a certain person, group of people or cause. People with Altruism value want to see that their efforts are used for the good of others.

Aesthetics - can be a beautiful architectural design, art in general or noticing beauty in simplicity of elegance. People with Ascetics high on their values list; see the beauty and interconnectedness to life and its rhythm. Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder so for a mathematician this could be a theorem or equation while for an artist it could be colors and textures.

Tradition – value of families and connecting through families. This could be around holidays, religious tradition (ceremonies, holidays, and rites). Usually it is not related to liberal or conservative but more about continuity.

Theoretical – value of understanding how things work, why they are the way they are. Usually people with high theoretical follow science, chemistry, biology or religious activities understanding how and why life all fits together.

The next step is to understand how one ranks these values and how specifically they show up for you. Most people need to take an assessment to rank their values. This will help one to understand more deeply and quickly how they show up in your life. This assessment will help you to understand how to spend your time, energy and money to align with your values.