The Motivation Trifecta: Desire, Energy, & Action

Motivated individuals have a verve!  It’s a vitality that moves their happiness and success needles up!  They make progress look so easy that we call them special, gifted, talented.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  As modern achieves like B. J. Fogg, Simone Biles, and Lin-Manuel Miranda will tell you, it’s not luck or genes that brighten their dazzle.  It’s getting on and staying the course.

In today’s world of constant notifications, burnout, and information overload, motivation often seems like a talent of the gifted.  But, it’s not an inborn gift.  It’s not a personality trait.  It’s a learnable skill.  Motivation is a combination of mind thought and methods.  And, each of us can learn to get it, get more, and keep it going.

It’s a matter of creating the motivation trifecta:  desire, energy, and action.

Step 1: Build Desire (the emotional spark of motivation)

Desire is where motivation starts.  It’s all about the dreams, the yearnings, that fire us and our emotions up!

To be realistic, negatives can motivate us — you can avoid danger, stop actions that others dislike, put off a difficult task — but it’s positives that have the desire building power.  Think about it:  when we follow a negative motivator, we’re telling ourselves what not to do.  We’re saying eliminate not add; “move away from this” not “go for this”; avoid not yearn.

To motivate progress, we need to imagine the positives that will improve our life.  What would make your current experiences more interesting, useful, beautiful, better, faster, easier, or fulfilling?  Maybe it’s a new car, a different job, a better relationship, or upgrading skills like learning and memory.  And those might be easy to attain or a far-off dream.  No matter.  The secret to motivation is imagining the mores of that experience.

• Want a new car?
  • Is it the smooth ride, the money you’ll save, or the picture of yourself behind the wheel that’s desirable?

• Want a better job?
  • Is it more recognition, a salary boost, or better hours that turns up your desire?

• Want to learn faster?
  • Or, remember more?  Is it having more time for leisure or family, or is it having more knowledge to share that’s so attractive?

Motivating desire is more than the prize.  It’s the emotional reactions, the greater happiness that living with it will bring.  And, as the Dalai Lama says, that’s the underlying purpose of life and all of our strivings!

Motivation method #1: To create I want desire,

• Identify what could make life better
• Focus on your happiness reactions

Step 2: Boost Your Energy (your motivation fuel source)

Once there’s desire, “can I do it” is the question.  A “yes!” creates the energy that propels us.  Just like any vehicle, before movement comes energy.  The car doesn’t move on its own.  It’s the combination of air and gas that produces combustion, the force that moves the vehicle.  So too with motivation.

Motivating energy comes from our power perceptions.  It boils down to whether or not we think the proposed path is feasible, reasonable, and promising.  To be feasible, we must have or be able to get the resources (knowledge, finances, tools, etc.) that we need.  To be reasonable, our planned actions must be doable.  And, of course, it all needs to promise the rewards we desire.  The more we have of these three, the more combustive, motivating energy we get.

The I can energy is low – or even missing – when we lack the necessary resources, we feel overwhelmed, or we think future efforts will repeat past failures.  Any one of those can turn your inner engine into a sputtering stall.  Fixing any power drains immediately upgrades motivation!   So, for example, what gets us off the couch for that tasty snack is knowing it’s stored in the kitchen (feasible), we can get it during a commercial (reasonable), and it’ll taste great and satisfy our craving (promising).

Motivation Method #2: Create I can energy:

• Check for feasible, reasonable, and promising plans
• Fix any power drains

Step 3: Take Action (your motivation momentum engine)

Some paths in our lives are easier than others.  Those social, leisure, and skillful actions that bring us pleasure have auto pilot motivation.  But what about those stretch, want more than I have visions?  To get started and maintain progress, they’ll need deliberate actions.  We’ll have to cause something to happen.  There are two methods that get that job done.

First, schedule one action.  The smaller the better.  As simple as that sounds, setting a start time is like shifting a car into drive:  so simple and so powerful!  Too often we lose the I want and I can motivation because we don’t actually start anything.  Or we become immobilized by too many options.  Want to exercise more?  Plan to attend a specific class or take a short walk today on a specific date.  And ASAP is best!  Want to achieve more on a work or school assignment?  Plan exactly when you will gather resources, have a meeting, brainstorm, take notes, etc.  Start with a time commitment!  A definite “when” prompts action!

Second, solve issues.  Realize that imagined plans won’t perfectly match physical realities.  Interruptions, unforeseen resource needs, distractions, other responsibilities, and under guessing task times will happen.  Motivated succeeders who make it look so easy see these events as times to regroup.  Others see them as reasons to quit.  And that’s the great divide between the two groups.

As leaders in psychology, performance, and creativity from Carol Dweck to Yo-Yo Ma to Adam Grant show us, success isn’t about luck or talent.  It’s about the efforts we use to stay the course.

Motivation method #3: Create I will actions:

• Schedule one action now
• Solve problems

In the End…

Motivation gets consumed.  To keep it going, return frequently and create more …

I want desire

• Identify what could make life better
• Focus on your happiness reactions

I can energy

• Check for feasible, reasonable, and promising elements
• Fix any power drains

I will actions

• Schedule one action now
• Solve problems

Key Takeaways:

• Motivation is a learnable skill.
• Desire creates the emotional, start-up sparks.
• Energy from believing you can succeed is the fuel source.
• Actions are the engine that generate momentum.
• You can return to these steps anytime your motivation dips.

Getting motivated is a lot like taking a trip.  It’s an imagined journey that’s planned and followed, with modifications along the way.  And like vacations, the best motivation is a trip that you don’t want to end!