Editor’s Note: This post is part of an old series of weekly motivation/development memos. The lessons taught are still relevant to our development today.
Monday Motivation — Intrinsic Motivation
By: Erinn Woodside
Happy Monday Invisible! I’ve got a fantastic Blinkst recommendation for you: Drive, by Daniel Pink. It covers the in’s and outs of what actually motivates us by looking at intrinsic vs extrinsic motivators.
And if you’re curious…I have my own personal story of intrinsic motivation below:
Not too long ago, I was sitting in front of my computer around 1am…staring at half a dozen tasks in Asana that were overdue…ruminating on why I hadn’t, yet, found key hires for the company…frustrated by big projects not making any headway…bogged down by intractable management problems…and eyeballing my empty wine glass. To say I was frustrated would be a understatement.
I had a mountains of mind-numbing tedious work ahead of me and no more hours in the day to get it all done. I was in the weeds…and getting eaten by mosquitos.
Instead of throwing my hands up…or continuing to get more frustrated…I took stock of my work routine and why I was feeling so stuck.
- What’s my daily/weekly routine?
- What’s the purpose behind each task?
- How do each of those tasks add up to larger accomplishments?
- Do those accomplishments line up with what I love and take pride in doing?
Turns out, I had a misalignment of tasks to values. Sure…all those tedious tasks were important and still had to get done…but what was missing was the work I love! I’d left out things that bring me joy.
I joined Invisible because I love people. I love seeing people grow, be challenged, be inspired, become the best versions of themselves. I love building teams. I love contributing to the common good. I love being of service. I love being decisive and being able to mastermind my own goals and outcomes. I love learning.
Guess what had become shockingly devoid in my daily work…1) people interaction, 2) lack of emphasis on growth, 3) lack of decisiveness, 4) lack of enough “common good.” All of those values are written into my job description…because I demanded them when I interviewed with Francis. So there is no reason why I couldn’t inject them back into my daily routine.
So I did.
And suddenly, my blocks were gone or diminished. And I was still able to knock out those tedious tasks that I don’t care for very much.
Why?
I found things that intrinsically motivated me and infused them into my work. What do I care about? What meaning is there in my daily tasks? If I can’t make the connection between task and meaning-making outcome I know that I’m not going to be very motivated to do it. And the fewer joy-filled tasks I have…the lower energy I will have for all my work.
As you start out this week…take some time to reflect on the meaning you find in your work. Make some notes. This month we’ll be doing personal development plans for each Partner and Agent. Knowing the things you find meaningful in your work will be a large component of these plans. Stay tuned!
Originally published at https://medium.com on December 3, 2018.
