Motivation is the force that gives direction and action in our lives.  Almost everyone realizes the importance of motivation, but few know how to develop it.  This is what makes my business exciting.  My company, Achievement Unlimited, offers the answer to developing permanent, personal motivation.  We have the key to the ignition switch that turns on the adrenaline and wakes up the sleeping giant within us.

Since motivation serves as a catalyst to focus the individual’s full potential on accomplishing goals, it is important to gain an understanding of the various methods of motivation. To explain how we do this, I would like to share a short explanation of motivation theory.  There are three basic ways to motivate yourself and others:

1. FEAR/ INTIMIDATION MOTIVATION.

In fact, fear motivation has been around for a really long time. It is probably the oldest type of motivation.  The biggest and strongest people survived and controlled and ruled the weaker people.  People are motivated because they fear losing their jobs, they fear the boss, or they fear the feelings of failure. Fear motivation, based on force, coercion, intimidation or punishment, may work for a while, but people who are its target soon learn to ignore the pressure, rebel against it, develop resentments, seek revenge or walk away from it.  People build up an immunity to fear and intimidation motivation. They learn to work just hard enough to keep the person they report to off their backs or they don’t do anything without checking with them to make sure it’s okay. Fear motivation disappears as soon as the threat of negative consequence is removed. Fear ceases to motivate if the power to inflict punishment is gone. Fear, too, is an important motivator, but if people are primarily motivated by fear, the results cannot be positive or healthy.  Fearful people don’t grow, develop and live up to their potential.

Fear motivation is external; somebody has to provide the fear.  When fear is used as a motivator, its effects are temporary.  People either find a way to escape from fear or they become immune to it.  Either way, fear motivation eventually fails.

1. INCENTIVE MOTIVATION.

Incentive motivation is generally regarded as a more enlightened strategy than fear motivation as it employs the use of rewards. It is simply a process of luring people by offering prizes, brides and flattery for something they should be doing anyway. Incentives include money, bonuses, trips, prizes and other rewards for a job well done.  Money is a great attention getter but a lousy motivator. The classic example of incentive motivation is a carrot hanging from a stick, in front of a donkey, pulling a cart.  Do you get the picture? What’s required for this system to work? First, the donkey must be hungry and like carrots. Then, the load in the cart must be light enough; the carrot must be big, juicy and attractive enough; and the stick must be the right length, not too long and not too short. So if the carrot is big enough, the load in the cart is light enough, and the donkey is hungry enough, this type of motivation works and the donkey pulls the cart.  All of the pieces have to fit.

You can take away the carrot and just use the stick as a whip and you have fear motivation and that may work for a while.  But what if you could change the donkey into a thoroughbred so it ran for the sheer joy of running?  There would be no need for a whip or a carrot.

Incentive motivation can be very effective with a clear destination or goals to hit, but in the final analysis, it is temporary, because it’s based upon reward and appetite.  When the incentive or reward is achieved, the appetite is satisfied. When that happens, the incentive no longer has the power to motivate.  Rewards by their very narrow focus restrict your possibility. That creates a serious problem.  Soon, the privilege is regarded as a right and the prize must continually be increased.

In effect, we create a behavioral response of getting people to do less and less for more and more. We develop in people a tendency to have an entitlement attitude. Since the concrete needs and desires of people change constantly, incentive motivation is unstable and its results are unpredictable.

When a company depends on incentive motivation, it must increase its incentives in order to motivate a person whose appetite has already been satisfied. Incentives must become progressively more impressive to continue to motivate the desired behavior. If, eventually, a person becomes completely satisfied, it is impossible to motivate that person using incentives.  Have you ever seen this happen or has it ever happened to you?

Despite the shortcomings of fear motivation and incentive motivation, these are the most common forms of motivation used in business and industry, in our schools and even in our homes, but fear and incentives just don’t work as well as they should.  They are both — external and temporary. Unfortunately, both of these types of motivation soon become less effective since they’re rarely accompanied by any kind of ongoing follow-up to change people’s attitudes or habits. The solution is not to entice people with sweeter carrots or threaten them with a sharper stick. These external motivators actually do more harm then good in the long run.

Fortunately, we’re not dealing with donkeys; we’re dealing with people… and people are thoroughbreds to start with… and if they are treated like thoroughbreds, they will perform like thoroughbreds. That is where attitude motivation comes into play. The good news is we have developed and will share with you a practical method which permanently motivates people in my next blog post.

Author Carl Rogers says that “the good life is a process, not a state of being.  It is a direction, not a destination.”  It is the realization, the accomplishment of personally meaningful goals.  Success is a choice not a destination. Success is a life-long journey to which one continually adds goals for growth in all areas of life.  This is exciting because you don’t have to wait to be successful.  Resolve today to write down your definition of success, and then lay out in writing the steps needed to get you there. Even a mediocre plan is better than no plan. Remember, you can make progress or you can make excuses, but not both!

You are on your way to success the moment you set a goal and take the first step toward it.  You can experience the thrill of success and the satisfaction of accomplishment today, you don’t have to wait. The miracle of successful living is that the smallest step towards success attracts more success. When you set a goal and take action toward it, you experience that rare mixture of excitement and inner calm which is the basis for successful living. Success is goal directed action that allows us to grow in a positive, meaningful, productive way. When we cease to grow, we begin to die.

We have to recognize that, despite their good intentions, some people do fail while others lead lives of mediocrity. Many people do attain some level of success, some level of satisfaction and then after a period of time get stuck in their comfort zone, the dead zone, the no growth zone.  And when you settle in the comfort zone of your life, life ever so slowly begins to deteriorate.  That’s why Henry David Thoreau said “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

When we examine why, it becomes apparent that while some people have talent, education, and opportunity, they lack motivation.  You cannot have success without motivation. These two concepts go together; they are really inseparable. Motivation is by far the most talked about and studied theory of peak performing individuals and companies.

What is Motivation?  When you take a look at the word motivation, you can see it’s really two words:  motive and action.  The first word “motive” is the reason for doing something, the drive, purpose, goal, benefit, objective or outcome.  The second word “action” supplies the go and the do to invest in the change. Action is another word for movement or motion.

The key to motivation is motive.  It’s the why behind the what, the reason we really want the what.  It’s the deeper “yes” burning inside of us. Motivation is the stimulant, the burning desire to a life of purpose.  Motivation is not some magical or mystical pump up or psych up seminar.  Motivation is the ability to see in the present the future that you want for yourself and your family and the willingness to design a plan of action to achieve your goals no matter what other people say, think, or do. When you strengthen the motive, you increase the action.

Motivation is movement toward a goal.  Like success, motivation means goal-directed action.  In essence, the words are synonymous; they go hand-in-hand.  If success and motivation were really as simple as that, more people would be successful and more people would be motivated.  In my next post I will examine the kinds of motivation used by companies and families and we will look at reasons why they have not always been effective as well as ways to make success and motivation work in your life.

We have been examining the definition of success; not just the textbook definition, but our individual definition of success and how that manifests in our lives.  Drilling down on the definition of success is an important step to take on your journey to achievement.  As we further examine the concept of success and the actions that we must take to achieve it we can see that success is not a spectator sport, it is progressive – achievement demands action.

Progressive: The word progressive means moving forward, advancing, and proceeding in steady steps.  It is an ongoing process. It’s dynamic.  It’s a journey rather than a destination and you cannot expect to arrive at success without having made the trip. Progressive means that you are successful as soon as you set a goal and begin working on it. Initial success comes as soon as you start to take action on your goals.

Realization:  Realization is the actual process of actively achieving your goals–step by step, day by day-the building blocks of success. This is the realization that the successive steps you are taking are advancing you toward accomplishing your goals.  You don’t just set goals; you are realizing them.  You immediately start to experience the progressive development of your potential.

Worthwhile: Are your goals truly worthwhile?  Do they provide you with real and lasting satisfaction? Are they soul-nourishing goals that have a significant impact on your world? It is important to examine your goals through this lens and determine if they are meaningful and compelling enough for you and worthy of your best efforts. Are they compatible with your own inner sense of values from your wheel of life?  Are they valuable and important enough for you to spend time, effort and energy on achieving them?  Goals have no intrinsic value unless they are meaningful to you. People who follow their inner sense of what is worthwhile minimize emotional static for themselves while achieving what is rightfully theirs.

Predetermined: You must make a conscious decision before and after serious thought and deliberation about what you want to accomplish.  Predetermined means you’ve thought it out and designed a plan of action for your journey.  Individually defined, premeditated personal goals hold your attention.  Predetermination suggests that you decide what your goals will be; you chose a deliberate and specific road map for your live, someone else did not choose them for you.

Personal: Your goals must be just that, yours.  They must be your intimate and internalized goals, reflecting your innermost dreams and desires, truly your personal vision of success. When you work to achieve someone else’s goals, you are not as motivated as when you work to reach your own.

Goals: A goal is a specific target, a result or a well defined outcome that you want to achieve. A goal is an end toward which your time, effort and energy is directed. The goal satisfies your wants and needs and is your objective toward which you aim your attention. Your goals must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible – and encompass the six major areas of your wheel of life. The six wheel of life areas are: financial & career, mental & educational, physical & health, social & cultural, family & home, and spiritual & ethical. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.  Success is growing in goal directed action.

…Success is a journey, not a destination.

PERSONAL GOALS.

Take that definition, examine it, reflect on it, and look at it carefully. Let the full impact of that definition enter your mind; let it germinate and incubate.

Success itself has taken on a new definition of constant and continuous preparation to meet the continuous change of the economic system today. Success really is achieving “what matters most” to you in every area of the wheel of life and in all of your personal and business relationships. Success is really embracing a personally meaningful journey, integrating your personal and professional lives in ways that can make a lasting difference.  And when you look at success in that way, you have the potential to create a legacy that can serve the world long after you’re gone. Success is really personal, that means it’s different for each individual. Success is a choice.  Success is the intentional, deliberate, pre-meditated use of choice, decision and attitude. Unless you choose specifically what you want in life, by default you will get whatever the world gives you. You must decide what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.  No one else can, will, or should do that for you. Everyone has their own personally meaningful definition of success.  When you look at our definition, there is an ethical and moral quality about it. When success is understood in these terms, you can see that it is an on going journey, not a destination.

In this “do more with less age” everyone is under siege to improve performance at every level in the organization.  We are constantly struggling to cope with getting more done in less time, with fewer good people, and ever tightening margins. In the expanding global marketplace, sustaining success is becoming increasingly more difficult.  Good is no longer good enough and business as usual is no longer an option. In the good old days a strong CEO could lead the organization to success; however, today’s leaders face the positive and negative forces of change as never before in the history of business. The fact is that whatever got you to where you are today is not enough to keep you there.  Whatever you are doing today, you need to be doing it considerably better or different a year from now if you still want to be in business. Never be satisfied with your current level of performance because you’re on the escalator of business; you’re going up the escalator or down the escalator, you’re growing your organization and your people or you’re dying, you’re proactive or reactive, you’re progressing or regressing, you’re creating or you’re disintegrating, you’re moving forward or moving backward.  You choose. Depending on your personal perspective and belief system, you are certainly living in the worst of times or the best of times. And only you get to make that choice.

The greatest power on earth is the ability to grasp onto an idea or concept that inspires people to reach their greatest potential. This power allows people to develop and use more of their potential, to achieve and enjoy more success and balance in their lives, and to lead and motivate other people during these turbulent times. The enduring strength of any company, organization or even family encompasses the values and purposes to which it has dedicated itself and by which it lives.

I’d like to share with you the ideas and concepts to which I am committed. When properly understood and applied to your lives, these concepts will lead to a more enthusiastic, productive, and confident living and working environment.

We all come from different backgrounds; however, there is one common bond that interests all of us. The truth of the matter is that we are all interested in greater success and balance in our lives.  Everyone wants success. No one wants to fail. Let’s see if you can really understand success and its closest relative- motivation.  If you can understand and internalize the meaning of these two words, you will understand a powerful concept that will wake up the sleeping giant within you.  Everyone has vast untapped potential within them that just needs to be awakened. We have developed the tools and strategies to tap into that potential and help you achieve a maximum level of success. I help individuals and organizations set and achieve their goals in order to help people unlock more of their potential consistently and with a greater impact affirmatively.  We are all about helping individuals and organizations continually create bigger and better futures.

I think you will agree that this is exciting.  The important question, however, is, will it work for you?  Right?  Absolutely! It will work for anyone who is serious about tapping into unrealized potential!