The Key To Success : Positive vs. Negative Motivation.

One of the biggest obstacles when it comes to building a business — or your career — is finding the motivation to stick it out when the going gets tough. The idea is that if you stick with something for long enough, then you’ll eventually reach your end goal. The question is; how do you find the motivation to keep going

If you do a Twitter search for #motivation, you’ll see that the feed is updated about every 5 seconds on average. But what is motivation? Well, you might define it as the ‘get up and go’ that gets you to the office each morning, or the ‘fat’ photo stuck on your fridge that makes you stick to your Paleo diet. In reality, your answer will really depend on who you are and where your priorities lie.

According to Dale Breachus; “Motivation can be defined as a willingness to expend energy to achieve a goal or reward”, and it’s clear that motivation is the key instigator behind every action that we take towards achieving our goals. But did you know that there are two types of motivation driving you forward? As human beings, we tend to move towards pleasure and move away from pain, which leaves us with the yin and yang of positive/negative motivation.

1.Positive Motivation

This type of motivation has a lot to do with visualization. In the case of positive motivation, you’re motivated by a reward that lies in the immediate or distant future. The expectation of that reward, and visualizing yourself when you have the reward, is what motivates you.

For example, when I worked in sales I was motivated by the commission that I’d earn each month by hitting my targets. I’d work out what I could earn by going over target and I’d visualize what I could do with that money, such as buying clothes, traveling, and saving for Christmas presents, etc. I wasn’t picturing myself in a Ferrari or anything — everything I visualized was achievable — and that motivated me even more.

However, when it comes to long term goals, it can be tough to maintain motivation when the rewards are so far away. This is why it’s important to break your long term goals down into short term actions, i.e things that are easily achievable and will give you a more immediate sense of accomplishment.

Those short term actions also have another name; your to-do list.

The to-do list plays a fundamental part in how we manage Projects here at Buckets. Checking items off a to-do list each day provides that much needed satisfaction you get from ‘getting something done’, even if you’re facing a mammoth project with a lengthy timeline. Each time you complete an item on your to-do list, you’ll be motivated to move on to the next, and so on. It’s a great way to give yourself some positive reinforcement throughout the day!

2.Negative Motivation

Negative motivation is the other side of the coin. This occurs when an action is taken to avoid experiencing pain or failure. So, going back to my sales job; my negative motivation would have been the threat of losing my job if I didn’t hit the targets.

Granted, that kind of motivation can absolutely work now and then, but it isn’t exactly beneficial to your morale or your well-being in the long run and it’s not really a long term solution. After all, the whole premise of negative motivation is that it forces you to find a way out of your situation; but what if you can’t? Then, you’re stuck (and kind of screwed).

You’ll always do a better job when you’re working towards something you want (i.e. positive motivation), rather than working to avoid something you don’t want. If you’re stuck with a task that you absolutely despise, then you just need to get your thinking cap on — because there’s usually a way to find something good about a task that you really dislike. And if you can focus on that one thing, you can approach the task more positively.

Thank you for reading...