Motivation is Complex | Comprosition

Stay motivated, feel important and know your value

29 Nov 2019

What does it take to motivate you? Is it money? An exciting project? Or do you just like setting goals for yourself? What do you do when none of those motivators are working for you anymore?

Motivation is a big deal, and an important part of our every-day life. We call on it all day, every day, to do the things we don’t necessarily want to be doing, those activities that wouldn’t be our first choice of how to spend the day. So, what is it exactly that is keeping us from relaxing in bed most days, binge-watching the latest season of our favourite show, with an expensive carton of chocolate ice-cream in our lap?

Motivation is a complex topic and one studied widely by behavioural economists, who are in the business figuring out what makes workers give their best to the companies who hire them. Pay Off: the hidden logic that shapes our motivation, is a book on motivation by Behavioural Economist, Dan Ariely, who comes to his topic from an interesting, if not harrowing, angle.

As a teenager, preparing for military service in Israel, Ariely was involved in an accident, an explosion that left him with third degree burns to 70% of his body. What followed was three years in hospital enduring painful treatments and surgeries. In that time, Ariely became an astute observer of his environment, and how the way a certain treatment or information was delivered affected his motivation to participate (often badly), and what factors made those caring for him, behave the way they did.

Of course, given the choice, Ariely would rather not have had this catastrophic experience, but it did manage to inspire a fascinating career in behavioural economics, trying to understand what motivates human behaviour, and we can benefit from what he has discovered.

Ariely’s study has mostly focused on the workplace, where individuals are assumed, at the most basic level, to be motivated to work by the need to earn a living (and it should be noted here that for those in poverty, any motivation beyond survival, would be considered a luxury), but understanding for most of us, there are a lot more factors in play, especially for how much effort we are motivated to put into a task.

While the answers to motivation are not straightforward — we all have some very personal reasons for why we do, what we do — there are some generalities Ariely’s studies arrive at, that provide clues into what drives our motivation. These are:

We are more motivated depending on how invested we are in the activity.

There is a story from the 1950s, regarding cake mixes, that tells of the original mixes being too convenient and to begin with, failing to be a household hit. Ernest Dichter, considered the ’father of motivational research’, was employed to do some focus research and come up with what might be needed to make the mixes more popular. Dichter’s insight was to take out the egg and milk powder, so that when making the cake, the baker needed to put in more effort. This effort gave the baker more ownership over the cake, and so greater investment in the final product. After taking out the egg and milk powder, cake mixes became a hit (just check in with any parent, who lets a proud young child crack the egg and stir the mix, how much more excited in the outcome the child will be!).

This is also called the IKEA effect, where furniture buyers are expected to put their furniture together themselves. Research has shown that the act of putting something together, having a hand in the completed project, generates greater satisfaction with the end result, than if they had purchased it already constructed/finished. Humans just really value their own effort, more so the fruits of that effort, and this sort of personal investment translates to being quite the motivator.

We are more motivated depending on the degree of meaning we can find in the activity.

Ariely tells the story, of the owner and manager of a wood paper mill, who lost his motivation to restore the competitive market place of his company, and could only look forward to retirement. Brought into the company to improve its fortunes, Ariely asked the owner to think back to what inspired him when he first started the mill up. The owner recalls coming from a poor family where paper was scarce, despite him loving to draw on paper. One day his father brought a large ream of paper home and he found himself in heaven, having all the paper he needed to draw on. That event was so significant he became determined to one day produce paper, so that everyone would always have enough.

Taking the owner of the mill, back to his original inspiration for paper, Ariely was able to motivate him to re-invest back into his work at the mill. A successful marketing strategy was implemented around this inspiring story, and the company regained its competitive position, in turn inspiring workers at the mill.

We are more motivated, the more our efforts are appreciated.

Ariely and his team, conducted an experiment where workers were encouraged to reach a certain productivity target each day and be rewarded, by either an amount of extra pay, a free pizza for dinner, or an SMS of appreciation sent by the boss.

Interestingly, the extra pay resulted in less productivity increases than the pizza, or praise from the boss. But as the study went on, the pizza reward lost its novelty and the clear motivator turned out to be a message of appreciation from the boss. It turns out that beyond money to meet our basic needs, what really motivates people is being appreciated for our efforts.

Of course, the important value of this research is in the question we must ask ourselves many times over, sometimes just in the one day: how to maintain our motivation when it is lost and we are in circumstances, that for whatever reason, cannot be changed. In other words when we find ourselves stuck, what can we do?

The answer to this is in mentally reframing how we approach the work or situation.

Some approaches might be to:

Reflect on what was originally motivating us, and how has that been lost. Do we not feel appreciated? Do we feel alienated from the work, by having lost a personal connection to it? Like Ariely’s mill worker, we could remind ourselves what the initial motivation for the project was, and rekindle our motivation through this kind of reflection.

Have our goals changed since we set out? Identifying our new priorities is a good first start, then finding ways to integrate those new priorities to where we find ourselves now. For example, viewing this current phase as a means to an end. It is unlikely there is nothing of value to be found where you are, and that cannot be related to where you would like to be. See the bigger picture.

Stay positive. What has happened to reduce your motivation and cloud your goals? Is there a way to stem this negativity and reframe the situation? Perhaps reflecting back on what you have achieved so far, who and what has helped you. Cultivating gratitude, in this manner, can have a powerful effect on how we view our everyday. To read more on how to cultivate gratitude in everyday life, click here.

Visualise your goals to stay in touch with them. Take time out each day, to clear your mind and relax, either with breathing exercises or a guided mediation. Once in a deep state of relaxation, you are better placed to really visualise where you are heading. Keeping goals clear and real to yourself, allows motivation to follow.

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Jo Murphy

Jo Murphy is a qualified writer, editor and practising visual artist, who exhibits in solo and group exhibitions.

She is a once-upon-a-time economist, who continues to enthusiastically engage with economics and politics, and finds these matters inseparable from how the average person lives their daily life.

Jo is, in fact, endlessly curious about other people's lives, specifically the nitty gritty of the challenges life has thrown at them. How someone found their way out of the dark, and then how they used that experience to go on and flourish, is Jo’s creative grist; stories of emotional growth just never get tired for her.

Jo is a mother to two, almost grown up, children and one youngish Whippet. If she had an instagram account it would most likely be devoted to the Whippet or her fabulous succulent garden.