Why Some People Are More Motivated and How To Become One?

Have you ever set a goal for yourself and then failed to follow through, claiming that you don’t have the motivation? You are not alone, trust me. This happens to all of us. There are days when all we feel is motivation and the desire that we can do, reach any goals we set our mind to.

And then there are days when we feel no motivation at all. All we want to do is veg out on the couch and do nothing. While it isn’t bad, it isn’t beneficial either. Even the most successful people sometimes feel the need to do nothing.

But have you wondered why some people are always motivated? Or are they more motivated than others?

The difference doesn’t lie in personalities, in case you were wondering. A highly motivated person knows when they need to slow down and how to slow down. And sure enough, when they dive back into the world, they get up feeling motivated.

The question is why are they more motivated than others? You’ll learn the answer to this question in this article.

It’s In Your Head, Literally

Dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for keeping us moving and active might be the answer. Dopamine encourages us to do, to act. This happy hormone motivates us to act on our desire. Want to achieve your lifelong goals? Want to live the life of your dreams? Dopamine is responsible.

When you achieve something you planned and the pleasure you feel? That’s because your brain releases dopamine. That’s the science side, now let’s understand why some people are always motivated from a psychological perspective.

Intrinsic Motivation Is What You’re Looking For!

For me, reading is not only my hobby but it’s something that gives me pleasure, makes me feel relaxed and excites me. To me, the idea of starting a new book at the end of the day is what motivates me to work hard all day.

This is just an example. Just as reading is for me, for others it might be playing sports or something equally rewarding and pleasurable.

These kinds of activities that give us pleasure as well as feel rewarding are called implicit motives. These motives drive our actions and motivate us to act. There are 3 basic types of implicit motives; power, affiliation, and achievement.

In previous articles, I’ve talked about how there are two types of motivations; intrinsic and extrinsic. When someone is driven by external factors such as the idea of fame, reward, or monetary compensation, they can be described as having extrinsic motivation. If someone is driven by internal factors such as pleasure, satisfaction, and fun, they can be described as having intrinsic motivation.

For example; In the case of intrinsic motivation, if you feel pleasure or motivated by being in a position of power, then you’re someone who is intrinsically motivated by power (one of the three implicit motives). If you’re motivated when surrounded by friends and family, you’re someone who is intrinsically motivated by affiliation. If you’re someone who is motivated by or enjoys challenges, then you are intrinsically motivated by achievement.

Your implicit motivations, your intrinsic motives are the ones that drive you to take action and reach your goals.

You cannot be motivated – internally or externally – if you don’t have the zeal, the passion to do something. No matter how hard you try if you keep saying, “I can’t do this”, you won’t be able to, regardless of the motivation.

Accomplishing your goals must be because you want to instead you have to. To be motivated to do more, you need to understand what drives you, what makes you want to.

Here’s an exercise you can try:

1. Identify Your Intrinsic Motivation

Ask yourself what motivates you the most, what drives you to act? Is it power, affiliation, or achievement? Once you know your implicit motivations, you will understand what motivates you. To identify your intrinsic motivation you can use exercises such as visualization. Visualize yourself in a situation where you might feel motivated.

2. Understand Your Emotions

Once you’ve visualized yourself in a situation, now focus on your emotions. What are you feeling? Are you feeling positive, strong, or confident? Are you feeling anxious? Or indifferent? Understanding your feelings during a situation can also help you identify your motivation style.

3. Know What’s Your Orientation

Are you power-oriented? Or are you achievement-oriented? To understand your implicit motives, you can visualize certain situations. For example; visualize yourself in a competition, do you feel motivated? If yes, you might be achievement-oriented. Does the idea of meeting new people motivate you? If yes, then you might be affiliation-oriented.

Once you know your motivation style and orientation, it will be easy to tap into your intrinsic motivation to reach your goals and achieve success.

Related Read: How Important Is Motivation And What Is its Role In Your Life?

How To Become A Highly Motivated Person?

I hope by the end of this article you will know what motivates you and what drives others to be more motivated. Now that you’re aware of your motivation style and what motivates you, what can you do to keep yourself motivated even during tough times?

Here are some ways you can become a highly motivated person:

1. Tap Into Your Inner Drive

The first thing you need to do to become a highly motivated person is tap into the well of your inner drive. Your intrinsic motivation is what is going to help you become a highly motivated person. You can use the above-mentioned exercise to help understand your motivation style.

2. Change Your Beliefs

As I previously said, if you feel you “have to” you won’t ever feel motivated to do so. Instead of telling yourself you have to or must do, tell yourself you “want to”. Altering your beliefs will help your mindset. When it comes to taking action, don’t say you have to, say you want to. If you keep thinking you have to change you’ll never change but if you say you want to change, you will.

3. Start Small

Many a time, people feel unmotivated to do something because they feel their goal is too big to reach in the time they have set. Because people set big goals, in the beginning, it might get difficult for them to complete the task, hence the procrastination. Is it easier to reach 100 steps or 50 steps in the beginning?

Make small yet smart goals. The point here is to do something. To start. No matter how small the task is, you take steps to do it.

4. Reward Yourself

Rewarding yourself is another great way to keep yourself motivated. Keep this reward exciting so that you can work harder to get it. The size of the reward hardly matters. For example; your reward for finishing cleaning your room could be a treat to a chocolate bar or the reward for completing your presentation can be a trip or a vacation.

Whatever your reward, it should be something that you look forward to once you’ve finished your task.

5. Celebrate Small Wins

One of the best ways to increase your motivation is to celebrate your wins, no matter how small they are. Pat your back, acknowledge your work. Celebrating reaching even a fraction of your big goal can be a great motivator. You made a goal, you worked on it, you succeeded – that’s important.

6. Have Exciting Goals

No, I’m not talking about goals like ‘going skydiving’. Having small but exciting goals matters. To some, expanding their business can be an exciting goal while others might have exciting goals such as inventing the next big thing in technology.

Everyone has a different goal, so do you know what motivates you? Create realistic yet exciting goals. That one goal that keeps you excited about wanting to keep working on it every day is the one you should focus on.

Final Thoughts

Even though some people are more motivated than others, you can learn to become one of the former only if you learn to tap into and follow your intrinsic motivation. One of the biggest reasons why some people are always motivated is because of dopamine, the pleasure hormone.

If you feel you need to increase your dopamine levels, you can read our blog on ‘Ways To Increase Dopamine Naturally’.

I hope this article helped you understand and answer the question of why some people are more motivated than others. For more, you can write to us at info@calmsage.com or follow us on social media.

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