The Essential Keys to Self-Motivation For Personal Success

What do self-motivated people have that allows them to achieve where others fail? Is it some rare genetic quality, like green eyes, that allows certain people to persevere without any structure or path to follow? Human beings are incredibly resilient, but part of what makes us so incredible is our ability to adapt to the circumstances. It is the influences both without and within us that make up our motivations. Everyone is motivated in their own way, some just tap into it better.

What are the keys to self-motivation? Simply put, there are three basic motivators, and depending on which one is your primary drive, you can approach the situation in different ways. There are also some basic skills for maintaining your direction even when things don’t seem to be going your way, these apply to every situation. Basic motivations include the extrinsic (our needs), the intrinsic (our desires) and our obligations (our sense of duty to choices like friendship or honor). When you understand your own motivation you can take steps to tap your self-motivational potential. 

Intrinsic Motivation

When you eat a cookie or hold a loved one, these are intrinsically motivated. You love and enjoyment determines this form of motivation. If you want nothing more than to swim in the ocean every day and as a result, you learn to swim, stay in top shape, get scuba certified, study oceanography and become a scuba tour guide, then your self-motivation is intrinsic. There is nothing wrong with being driven by the things that make you passionate. Great examples of intrinsically self-motivated people include Olympic athletes and professional video game league players.

How to Succeed Intrinsically

If the thing that makes you get up in the morning and what you dream of at night center around what you like and what you want, this is your motivation type. Try satisfaction based self-motivation techniques.

1. Promise yourself a reward upon completion of a task

2. Shoot for the stars, but limit yourself to working on a single goal. Focus your energy.

3. Don’t settle. Avoid going down paths that lead away from your goals.

4. Seek every opportunity to advance in your chosen goal. Learn every detail about what you love.

5. Perfect your skill set. Never settle for being good enough to pass, always shoot for being the very best.

The joy of intrinsic motivation is that you get to do what you want. There will be times when, in order to continue doing what you most desire, you have to work on aspects that are not your favorite part. For example, a writer who wants to have a best seller gets to do what they love, they get to write. However, they also have to push through writer’s block and work on spelling and editing, which may not be something they love as much as seeing their cover in book stores.

Extrinsic Motivation

Outside pressures, like the need to eat, sleep and feel healthy are perhaps the easiest form of motivation. Most people are already extrinsically motivated, they just don’t think about it and seldom use that motivation to do more than satisfy their needs. That is, after all, what extrinsic motivation is about. A perfect example of an extrinsically motivated person is the cubicle slave. When you live paycheck to paycheck and always have to be careful about where your rent and meals come from this is extrinsically driven. It may seem unlikely at first that you can turn this to your benefit, but it’s actually a simple process.

How to Succeed Extrinsically

When you use the pressure of base needs to help push you down the path to success it isn’t as complicated as pulling yourself up from nothing to create a life based on your wants. All you have to do is get better at fulfilling your needs.

1. Identify what is holding you back from having your needs met more completely. Lack of savings, negative people in your environment or personal fear of loss can hold you back.

2. Take small steps to move ahead of your current predicament. Learn to budget money, start a small savings or a side gig. Often extrinsic motivators can be resolved with a better understanding of finances, though there are other ways to relieve the pressure, like growing a food garden that allows you to spend less money.

3. Remove any unnecessary hurdles. If you have bad influences, people, addictions or even just bad habits that hold you back, let them go. This is not an instant process, especially with bad habits, but given time and will to succeed you can get rid of the obstacles.

4. Let go of your fear of failure. Learn to take small but calculated risks to improve your situation.

5. Rephrase your thinking. When you catch yourself in the “I can’t,” frame of mind stop and ask yourself how to do something instead. “I can’t climb a mountain because I’m out of shape etc.,” can be turned into, “I can climb the mountain in a couple of years if I first start walking to work a couple of times a week and eat less dessert. Then in a few months, I can save up and join a gym,” before long you will have a fully mapped out plan that uses your needs, like health, to reach your goals, like climbing a mountain.

The simplicity of extrinsic motivation is all in the way you reach your needs. When you use those basic requirements as a part of the path to achieving your goals then you can use your needs to make your desires a part of your way to reach those requirements. A great example would be the actor Jim Carrey or the Writer, JK Rowling. Both of these people began their careers literally destitute. Mr. Carrey has talked about sleeping in his car and JK Rowling tells of a time when she was “as poor as it is possible to be in Britain without being homeless,” and applying for British welfare. Both of these extraordinary people used their extreme needs as a motivation to make their dreams come true. They created a path out of poverty that also pointed them at their goals and ultimately got what they wanted.

Obligatory Motivation

Obligatory motivation is unlike the other two forms of self-motivation. It is not driven by basic need or by the desire to achieve personal dreams, but rather by a sense of the needs of others. A person who works with the homeless or the elderly is driven by obligatory motivation. They tap into the need to help others as a way to move along in their chosen path. An example of someone driven by Obligatory motivation would be the funder of a charity. They may receive a salary and great satisfaction in their work, but primarily they do it for the good of others.

Succeeding at Obligatory Motivation

Using your sense of moral or social obligation, your honor, and good-heartedness, to motivate yourself may seem slightly contradictory at first. Try to keep in mind the ancient wisdom that says, “You cannot pour from an empty cup”. Keeping yourself together so that you can benefit others is a great way to reach your goals.

1. Seeking outside input in order to improve is a technique that finds great success with the obligatorily motivated.

2. Get help. Those who feel the need to do for others often create groups or seek out others who are likeminded to assist in achievement.

3. Go the extra mile. Willingness to not only step up but also take the extra steps when they aren’t strictly required will serve this motivation type well.

4. Focus on why you need to succeed. When you are working for someone else, sometimes simply not wanting to fail them is enough to keep you on the path.

5. Stay positive. One of the most difficult parts of the helpful mindset it that you can become overwhelmed by what you cannot do. Remind yourself that this is destructive thinking and keep your mind on what you are doing right instead.

The most satisfying self-motivation is the obligatory variety. When you drive yourself forward with the power of what you can help others achieve you can do so much. Oddly enough, one of the greatest examples of obligatory motivation is the motivational speaker. A person who is so driven by the need to help others that they devote their lives to helping others help themselves is a powerful thing.

Tips for Any Kind of Motivation

1. Eat right. Keep a healthy balance so you can do more.

2. Sleep right. The most successful people n the world will all tell you how vital sleep is.

3. Don’t self-flagellate too much. When you doubt yourself or get angry at a failure, remember this… It took hundreds of tries to make a lightbulb. If you give up, you are done, and the world will never see your brilliance.

4. Never fear success.

Final Thoughts

The biggest secret to self-motivation is simply that you must never give up. Refusing to give up is the only path to success, everything else is just defeat.