9 Effective Ways to Stay Motivated
Motivation plays a role in all human behaviors, especially when making a behavior change. It influences most, if not all decisions made.
When making a decision, choices are influenced heavily by the motivations behind those decisions. The motivational state a person is in when making a decision can influence the outcome of that decision.
If a person is experiencing motivation while learning something new they retain the information better and are able to accomplish the skill easier as well.
The Power of Motivation
Some slight differences in the way information is retained can be attributed to the motivations of the individuals.
For example, if a person is motivated to perform well at a specific task, the short term learning of the skill is increased. Long term learning has been shown to be retained through having the motivation of mastery or cognitive ability to accomplish a task. Mastery is the comprehensive knowledge or skill of a subject or an accomplishment.
Types of Motivations
The thought process behind wanting to do something can also be motivated by reward.
Extrinsic motivations are reasons for doing a task by an external motivator, usually referred to as a reward; money, fame, praise, a particular reward achieved from doing the task.
Nonetheless, extrinsic motivations can sometimes lessen learning outcomes or undermine intrinsic motivations in the case of tasks that are of interest to that person.
Intrinsic motivation is described as the desire to do something for fun or general curiosity.
The feeling of enjoyment is naturally made in the body by the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is in direct correlation to motivation and heightened specifically with intrinsic motivations.
The American Psychological Association defines intrinsic motivation as “an incentive to engage in a specific activity that derives from pleasure in the activity itself (e.g., a genuine interest in a subject studied) rather than because of any external benefits that might be obtained (e.g., money, course credits)” (Intrinsic motivation, n.d.).
Mental fatigue can happen when performing a demanding task for a prolonged period of time, this also lessens motivation. “Taking the fun out of it” and turning that original feeling of motivation into a chore.
Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness
For increasing motivations and changes in behavior we must understand the concepts, autonomy, competence and relatedness and use them to our advantage.
Autonomy refers to our willingness and perceived control of the situation.
Competence refers to how much our actions align with our goals and the basis of our knowledge and skill set to achieve this.
Relatedness refers to how much we feel connected and supported by others. This plays into how much meaning is derived from the chosen behavior.
Overall, when trying out a new behavior or change in ones life take small steps that align with your core values and overarching goal. Remember to celebrate these small steps and wins. This is a way of acknowledging progress and successes. Using a reward can stimulate the extrinsic value of your chosen behavior, acknowledging your successes, new found knowledge and feeling the appreciation for your hard work can stimulate the intrinsic motivations.
Why are small wins important?
We can all experience a set back, especially when trying to accomplish a large goal or daunting task. As humans we usually emphasize these setbacks and focus more of our energy on how to avoid this in the future.
Celebrating small wins can help stimulate motivations to keep going and maintain positive momentum. Small win theories have shown that using small intervals of successful accomplishments can keep positivity and productivity up and minimize the distraction of the eventual setbacks everyone experiences when trying something new.
9 Tips to Staying Motivated
- Try to identify what is motivating you to reach your goal or accomplish your task. Is this based around a reward or a general desire to learn something new?
- Try to find motivating factors that are internally based when making a behavior change. Examples of these may be doing the behavior for fun or out of the interest to explore something new.
- Ask yourself how comfortable you feel with making this new change, how competent you feel and how much support for this new behavior you have.
- Celebrate each small accomplishment along the way, if struggling to figure out how to do this think about breaking your goal up into very small steps.
- Journaling or writing a step by step list as detailed as you can, can help to see all the accomplishments along the way. This also helps to maintain accountability. Making a list of all that you accomplished in the day can be a great way to reflect and celebrate!
- Try out new behaviors that you have a genuine interest in, for example if exercise is a goal try something that sounds fun to you maybe this is a dance class or tossing the ball around for your dog.
- Try to not over-do it. If a new behavior is becoming a drag or source of stress motivation to continue can go down and we can start to associate this new behavior with negative feelings, if something is not working try mixing it up a bit so it remains an enjoyable experience.
- Sharing your successes with those you care for can be a way to feel proud of your accomplishments and feel the support from those around you. This can help to keep on track and provide positive social support.
- Be mindful of setbacks, this happens to everyone at some point but doesn’t need to be the end of your exploration. Reflecting on the list you made of your wins can help you to remember how far you have already come. This can also be a chance to pivot if necessary or learn from the experience and continue on towards your goal :)
