In this episode of The Creative Introvert podcast I’m talking all about motivation - what it really is, how it’s different for introverts and extroverts and how to make your own motivation if you’re a creative introvert.
I’ve also made a free downloadable checklist - a guide that accompanies this episode - so that you can have that at the ready whenever you feel the slump, the lack of motivation and need something to get you going again.
According to a Google search, the term ‘motivation’ is defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is the spark that causes us to act, whether it is getting up for a glass of water to reduce thirst or reading a book to gain knowledge.
Motivation can be either intrinsic - ie. coming from within - or extrinsic - you guessed it - coming from outside of us.
Intrinsic motivation means that the reward we get for doing the behaviour is something like enjoyment, achievement, a sense of competence - things we feel inside.
External motivation rewards are things like money, awards and praise from others.
Now, there is a theory that suggests introverts on the whole need less external motivation than extroverts to stimulate a response. It’s kind of like the lemon juice test.
It’s been proven - with science! - that introverts salivate MORE when given a few drops of lemon juice to the tongue, than extroverts.
Nice to know I can save money on my lemons…
So while we need less of the external triggers - we’re not off the hook.
We still require motivation to get stuff done - but in our case, it is the internal motivation that gives us the kick up the bum we need.
The problems I’ve found in harnessing this intrinsic motivation is that on some days - some months or years - it just doesn’t seem to be there.
We wake up and we go throught the motions - but we aren’t really sure why.
This does not feel good. It makes doing anything a lot harder. Even when the external motivation triggers are there - our insides just aren’t responding.
That’s because we aren’t intrinsically motivated.
So.. how does one conjure up this intrinsic motivation?
It isn’t quite as easy as using an app or getting a reminder on our phone or even getting a bonus at work.
Now I can’t promise you I have a scientifically proven formula for getting yourself intrinsically motivated again - but I have got 7 things I’ve done on those days when I feel like even getting out of bed is a mammoth task.
They’ve become my go-to checklist for those times, that again and again, steer me in the right direction and get my mojo back.
So if you’re feeling like you can’t seem to get something done and you don’t know why, it might be worth trying out at least one of the following exercises to spark that fire again.