Motivation in Different Aspects of Our Lives

Motivation concerns every aspect of our lives. Thus, it is a key life skill and something that everybody interested in personal development should think about. I'm absolutely certain that every individual person needs to find out a way to motivate himself/herself up. I am convinced that a lot of people in the world spend a generous amount of their time at work. The reasons for working are as individual as the person and every individual person has different motivations for working at a job. But, all people work because the workplace provides something that you need from work. The something that you obtain from your work impacts your morale, your motivation, and the quality of your life. To my mind, if you are not fulfilling your calling you will never have the motivation in life. What people mainly need are passion for life, recognition and feeling. 

First of all, I appreciate being recognized and needed. It really motivates me. I am excited to be part of the team. I enjoy working with others and get a real kick out of the closeness involved. The relationships and energy created by working with teams is very important to me. My environment must encourage good communications, collaboration, and sharing of resources. I’m excited and energized by doing things that I believe have inherent worth. My desire for meaning and contribution must be fed. This can be done through useful and worthwhile communication and recognition. Barry Schwartz in his book “Why We Work” says “to be satisfied with our work, we typically need a belief in the purpose of what we do”. Considered his words, I need to see tangible outcomes and impacts on the benefiting goals. 

Secondly, I am very passionate about almost every aspect of my life. My friends, family, hobby are my prodigious motivation and passion. In my experience this is what makes me sprightly, happy and inspired by positive. Undoubtedly this is what makes me get up every morning. 

Last but not least are feelings. I need feelings because I want to feel beloved, appreciated. In my experience, this indeed fills life up. Furthermore, I want to evoke these feelings in others as well. Certainly, I mean positive feelings/emotions which facilitate or even increase intrinsic motivation. I am of the opinion that the main reasons people may feel demotivated are lack of understanding with colleagues, no development opportunities or lack of challenge, feeling undervalued or lack of recognition and also having tough relationships with family. Consequently, demotivation can negatively influence person’s attitudes and behaviors, it may reduce productivity and quality of work or even decline mood and mental health. 

Speaking about my personal demotivators, first of all, I would like to say it is fear. Sometimes it stops me from going any further in my way. For instance, I may feel demotivated because I fear acceptance. Before sharing some idea, I tend to think of the consequences of it, like co-workers or manager not sharing the same thoughts, rejections from friends. I understand that the reasons behind my demotivation has to be addressed and I can only do this by confronting it. 

On the flip side, I might also feel demotivated because of setting up wrong or unattainable goals and because of conflicts. Whatever it is, I try to confront it and get clarity. It helps me perpetually feel motivated until I finish my task. Furthermore, communicating with toxic people also negatively impact on my motivation. Some toxic people may use anger as a way of influencing, or they may not respond, or interrupt and suddenly start speaking negatively about something dear. Thus, toxic people may drive brain into a stressed-out state that should be avoided at all costs. I can never let myself be impolite or rude to my colleagues. I treat people with respect and always keep subordination. As a consequence I always demand to be treated with corporate culture and respect at work as well. Sadly, sometimes things are not always the way we expect them to be. If I'm suffering because of such people, and my compassion, patience, advice, and general attentiveness doesn't seem to help, I try to detach myself from such people and reject any provocations. When I delete toxic people from my environment it becomes a lot easier to breathe. 

To sum up the essay, I would like to use Barry Schwartz quotes “focus on what makes you motivated, and do what gives meaning to your life” since “all we need is to do what really makes others life better”.