3 Ways to Spark Motivation and Increase Your Drive

Let's say you've been told you're not driven. Or, even worse, you actually feel like you're not driven.

Create your own motivation. Your drive is in there somewhere. You can recruit it, mobilize it, round it up, bring it forth…if you know how.

How, you ask? (Keep reading.)

In our Extreme Productivity research, we studied 2,377 business professionals to learn what the most productive people do to manufacture motivation, control their time, and execute at the highest levels. Interestingly, we found that The Extremely Productive (The XP) are 2x more driven than The Rest.

I'm a very driven person.

First things first. Realize that drive is emotional. You can rationalize it in all sorts of ways. "I want to make more money. I need this promotion to get to the next step."

But why?

You want money for freedom. You want money to do what you want to do with your time. Promotions bring prestige. They bring hope of career advancement and fulfillment.

These are desires.

If you want your desires to come true, you need disciplined action to help you get there.

In the Dhammapada, Buddha compares his desires to an elephant and his discipline to a human trainer:

I know people who want to get in shape, but they're not really committed. They diet and exercise for a day, then it's right back to a pound of penuche fudge and a 10-episode Simpsons binge.

When do they break the cycle? When they get serious about wanting the long-term reward of getting in shape more than the short-term pleasure of fudge and Netflix.

Sometimes getting what you want long-term happens effortlessly. Sometimes people win the lottery, too. Depending on divine providence to achieve goals is not a great strategy. The first step in a great one is increasing your emotional attachment to achieving the long-term vs. short-term reward.

In other words, you must inspire your elephant to want fitness more than fudge. Do so and working out and eating healthy become much easier.

Drive is in there. You can recruit it.

The second way to Manufacture Motivation is to Ignite Your Proactivity.

The Extremely Productive (XP) are 2.7x more proactive than The Rest. This is a key driver of productivity.

I am very proactive.

Two-thirds of The XP report they're very proactive, compared to one-quarter of The Rest.

Proactivity drives productivity and motivation. Procrastination kills it.

Yet, everyone—even the most productive people—procrastinates every once in a while.¹

When there's something you know you need to do that seems difficult, it requires a lot of energy to get started. So you avoid it. If you avoid getting started on difficult things, it doesn't mean you aren't working.

You can fill your days with work. That's easy.

Sit back and react to email? No problem.

Show up to the meetings on your calendar? Check.

Turn off your email, put your phone in a drawer, and dive into your Greatest Impact Activity (GIA) that seems difficult to start? Not so easy.

The XP have it figured out:

1. They start their day focused on their GIA.
2. They put their GIA in their calendar.
3. They stay focused on their GIA, and, even when pressed to do so, don't react to other people's agendas. (In fact, only 4% of the XP feel like they react to other people's agendas instead of driving their own.)

We've written about the definition of motivation before, and shared this definition from Business Dictionary:

Recruiting your drive is stimulating desire and energy. Do so and you'll be ready and willing to act.

Igniting your proactivity is making the effort, actually getting started on the actions that'll get you where you want to go.

Think of proactivity as a skill, not an attribute! It's not fixed. It's not an "I am" or "I'm not."

It's an "I can be if I can get organized about it."

63% of The XP agree their work habits contribute significantly to their productivity. The Rest? Only 12%. Most people (86%) are in The Rest.

This is pretty bad. Or, let's say there's huge room for improvement. (There's some positive self-talk!)

My work habits contribute significantly to being extremely productive.

Too bad you can't teach an old dog new tricks, right?

Wrong!

You can change even the most embedded of habits if you know how.

Habit change has been a popular self-help topic over the last decade. Still, many pundits over-complicate habit change, or miss crucial elements that limit old dog-people from learning new dog-people-tricks.

Our research and field work have led us to strongly believe that the common habit loops you find out there a) aren't loops, and b) are incomplete.

There are 4 Elements of Habit:

1. Trigger: Something happens that cues a sequence of doing something you tend to do. For example, your email alert dings while you're working.
2. Thought: The cue triggers a thought, even if it's fast or subconscious. The thought might be, "I should check the new email."
3. Response: Following the thought, you take an action. You toggle over to your email to read the new message.
4. Reward: This is your gain or payoff. "Oh great! That report I'm waiting for is in. I'll stop what I'm doing and take a look."

Assuming you're conscious of the habit you want to change, you can intervene in several different places around the 4 Elements of Habit. You can change the trigger, change the thought, change your response, and define or increase or otherwise change what the reward is, as well as whether and how much you want it.

Yes, changing habits is difficult, but learning how to change them is pretty straightforward. The key is to identify the habits draining your motivation and employ new habits that boost it.