How to Get Motivated: Tips For Life and Work

By Nathalie Boutros, Ph.D.
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.

What does it mean to get motivated? Learn about different kinds of motivation and how to feel more authentically motivated.

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Motivation is an energizing force that drives you to take action. When you’re motivated, you feel excited and driven to start working towards a goal and to keep working towards that goal, even in the face of obstacles (Parks & Guay, 2009). It can feel exhilarating to be genuinely motivated to work on a goal that you care about (Cook & Artino, 2016). In this article, we’ll review research on motivation and talk about ways that you can feel more motivated.

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What Does It Mean to Get Motivated? (A Definition)

According to research psychologists from the middle of the last century, reward is the cornerstone of motivation (Skinner, 1953). You feel motivated to do something when you know you’ll get rewarded. When there is no obvious external reward, the reward is assumed to be intrinsic to the task. For example, children don’t need external rewards to play because the act of playing is itself rewarding. Playing is intrinsically motivated. In contrast, when you do something, not for the joy inherent in the act, but to get closer to something that you do want, that task is extrinsically motivated (Ryan & Deci, 2000).

Video: Promoting Motivation, Health, and Excellence

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation both exist along a continuum. Intrinsic motivation, where you do something because of the pleasure inherent in the act, is on one end of the continuum. Inaction, or a complete lack of motivation, is at the other end. Extrinsic motivation exists across the entire middle region of the continuum and can vary according to how autonomous or coerced you feel when acting. You may feel motivated to study a boring subject because you have career ambitions that are important to you. This demonstrates a high degree of autonomy. 

In contrast, you may only feel motivated to study because you’re scared of how your parents may react to a bad grade. This demonstrates a low degree of autonomy. In both of these examples, you are externally motivated to study. However, you feel more autonomous and less coerced when you are motivated by your values and ambitions rather than fear of punishment. Notably, you’ll probably learn more deeply and be happier if you’re motivated by more autonomous goals.

Levels of Extrinsic Motivation
Four levels of external motivation exist between complete amotivation and intrinsic motivation. The degree to which the motivation has been internalized increases as you move through these levels.

• External regulation: acting only to earn rewards or avoid punishments. An exercise contract where you pay an entry fee that you get back if you complete a defined amount of exercise is an example of external regulation.
• Introjected regulation: acting to avoid negative emotions like guilt or anxiety or to enhance self-esteem or pride. You’ve partially internalized the goal but haven’t completely accepted it. If you exercise to avoid judgment from your doctor, you are motivated by introjected regulation.
• Identified regulation: The external pressure has become a personally important goal because it is useful. If you exercise because of the benefits to heart health you are motivated by identified regulation.
  
• Integrated regulation: The goal has become part of your personal identity and aspirations. The behaviors are now autonomous and self-determined. If you exercise because exercise is important to your identity and sense of self, then you are at this level. The motivation isn’t intrinsic; you are still externally motivated. However, you act because the actions reflect your values and you are authentic in your commitment.

How Basic Psychological Needs Contribute to Motivation

Goals that fulfill three basic psychological needs are more likely to be further along the continuum in the direction of intrinsic regulation (Cook & Artino, 2016):

• Autonomy: We all want to feel that we are in control of our actions. No one likes feeling that they are being coerced into doing something. For example, you’ll probably feel more motivated to study if you choose your own major.
• Self-efficacy or Competency: You want to feel that you are competent. The task can’t be so difficult that it feels impossible, but it also can’t be so easy that you don’t feel challenged. If you’re a first-year college student, you probably wouldn’t feel motivated to study a graduate-level textbook. You also probably wouldn’t feel motivated to study a child’s textbook. The task should match your abilities.
  
• Relatedness: You will feel motivated if you feel a sense of connection with others. You may feel more motivated to study a boring subject if you join a study group or if you learn that others in your chosen career path have also taken this class and studied this material. You can increase feelings of relatedness by building connections related to your goals and promoting environments that exhibit genuine caring, mutual respect, and safety.

How to Get Motivated in Life in General

Generally, you’ll feel more satisfied and more motivated if you can pursue goals that are consistent with your values and interests (Parks & Guay, 2009). If you can structure your professional, educational, health, domestic, and personal life around your values and interests, you’ll feel a greater sense of intrinsic and integrated motivation. This will make building habits and completing goals easier. When you’re acting in ways that support your values, you’ll feel happier and more motivated.

How to Get Motivated to Workout or Exercise

Exercise goals that fulfill your basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness may increase your motivation to exercise. When your basic psychological needs are fulfilled, you’re more likely to approach exercise with positive feelings, your experience of exercise will be more satisfying, and you’ll be more likely to persevere in your exercise program (Teixeira et al., 2018).

If you’re feeling completely unmotivated, you may need to use external motivators, at least at first. Extrinsic rewards may help you get the experiences and skills that you need to increase your feelings of competence (Gillison et al., 2019) and to move you along the continuum away from amotivation and closer to integrated and intrinsic motivation. A good tip is to create an exercise regimen that increases your sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Gillison et al., 2019).

Examples of How to Get Motivated to Workout or Exercise

Autonomy
You can increase your sense of autonomy by incorporating choice into your exercise routine. Instead of the same exercise class every day, give yourself a choice between going to the class, going for a run, or going for a swim. You’ll also feel a greater sense of autonomy if you have a rationale or reason for what you’re doing. Knowing that 30 minutes of daily aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure can increase your sense of ownership over your workout routine and can motivate you to exercise daily.

Competence
You can increase your feelings of competence by focusing on your own definition of success and not on outside expectations. You may not be able to complete a marathon, but finding an achievable fitness goal may increase your feelings of self-efficacy. You can also increase your feelings of competence by seeking out specific feedback on your progress. A smartwatch is a great tool for this – you can track information about your activity levels like your heart rate or the distance you’ve run. You should make sure to monitor feedback that matches your specific goals. If your goal is to get stronger, you could measure how much weight you can lift. In this case, you might not necessarily be interested in your resting heart rate.

Relatedness
Feeling a sense of connection to a community is important to staying motivated. Find a workout buddy or an online community to help you feel more connected to people who share your exercise goals.

How to Get Motivated to Work

Generally, you'll feel motivated to work when you find your work interesting, when your work has clear and well-defined goals, and when you can link your work to a wider project. You can increase your motivation to work by addressing your basic psychological needs (Sharp et al., 2009).

Examples of How to Get Motivated to Work

Autonomy
You’re more likely to feel motivated if you feel a sense of ownership or choice over your work. When faced with a boring or unpleasant work task, you can increase your sense of autonomy and motivation if you can connect the task to a career path that you have chosen. Having some variety in your work can also increase your sense of autonomy and your feelings of motivation.

Competence
Work that is technically challenging will be more motivating than work that is too easy. You’re unlikely to be motivated by boring tasks that don’t fulfill your need to feel competent.

Relatedness
You’ll probably be more motivated to work if you have a sense of belonging within supportive workplace networks. Team-building exercises and happy hours with your colleagues may help you feel more connected and more motivated in your work. You’ll also feel a greater sense of motivation if you can connect your contribution to a larger project that is impactful and important.

How to Get Motivated to Study

Fulfilling your basic psychological needs can also help you get motivated to study. In one study, engineering students taking a low-interest class that was required for their major were more motivated when real-world examples of the material were incorporated into the course (Gero et al., 2016). The real-world examples increased feelings of autonomy by connecting the usually abstract material to the self-selected goal of becoming an engineer. The examples also increased feelings of relatedness. Students were able to connect their classwork to the community of working engineers which they wanted to become a part of.

You may be able to motivate yourself to study by fulfilling your basic psychological needs. Your feelings of autonomy may increase if you remind yourself that you are working towards your chosen educational goals. Your feelings of relatedness may increase if you seek out connections to people in your chosen field who have completed the course of study that you’re now struggling with.

How to Get Motivated to Clean

People generally report three main motivators for cleaning (Moretro et al., 2020).

• Cleaning as a matter of routine.
  
• Cleaning when you see visible dirt or mess.
  
• Cleaning for social reasons such as when guests are coming over.
  

If you know that you need to clean but can’t get motivated, incorporating one or more of the above motivators may help. My bathroom has been a lot cleaner since I started wiping the counters as part of my morning routine. If visible dirt motivates you, you can arrange your home to make dirt and mess more obvious. People tend to be better at detecting food and dirt on smooth surfaces like laminate and stone compared to textured surfaces like wood (Moretro et al., 2020). People are also better at detecting dirt on light-colored surfaces. Getting rid of your wooden chopping boards and choosing light colors for all your surfaces may motivate you to clean more often. If routine and visible mess fail to get you cleaning and you still want to motivate yourself, try inviting a fastidious friend over.

Video: The Psychology of Self-Motivation

How to Get Motivated in the Morning

According to the popular self-help book, The Miracle Morning, you can transform yourself into a morning person (Elrod & Osborn, 2018). The strategy outlined in the book recommends that you wake up at least thirty minutes before usual and engage in six activities, represented by the acronym SAVERS:

• S – Silence: Mediation, prayer, deep breathing, reflection, gratitude, or any other activity that is solitary and silent.
• A – Affirmations: Recite your personal commitments and what you intend to do to achieve your desired outcomes.
• V – Visualize: Use your imagination to create a picture of your future and how you will achieve it.
• E – Exercise: Even a walk around the block or a few minutes of jumping jacks can increase your energy levels for the rest of the day.
• R – Read: Start with ten pages of reading a day.
• S – Scribe (write): Write down your thoughts, ideas, realizations, or anything else. Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper will heighten your awareness and increase clarity.

You may be more successful in adopting the habit of early rising if you increase feelings of relatedness by working with an accountability partner.

If you have trouble even getting out of bed in the morning, The Miracle Morning recommends these steps to get you up.

• Set your intentions before bed. Before you go to sleep, create a positive expectation that you will wake early the next day.
• Move your alarm clock away from your bed, forcing you to physically get up to turn it off.
• Brush your teeth as soon as you get out of bed. Engaging in an automatic action first thing gives your brain time to get active.
• Drink a large glass of water. Dehydration may make you feel more tired.
• Get dressed or have a shower. This sets the momentum for the SAVERS routine and for the rest of your day.

The authors of The Miracle Morning suggest that you challenge yourself to waking early and going through the SAVERS routine every day for thirty days in a row. Waking early is said to become easier as you progress through the thirty-day challenge. Establishing the first thirty days of these new habits as a challenge may externally motivate you to persevere through the discomfort until you start to experience the internalized rewards of early rising.

How to Get Motivated when Depressed

Depressed people often experience anhedonia, a loss of pleasure from previously enjoyable activities (Pizzagalli, 2014). This loss of pleasure can make it extremely difficult to get motivated. All motivation, from extrinsic to intrinsic, involves feelings of enjoyment or satisfaction. Feelings of self-efficacy or competence are also often reduced in depression. People with depression often don’t believe that they can control their futures or cope with future negative events (De Raedt & Hooley, 2016). Since motivation deficits are almost a definitional part of depression, it can be very difficult to feel motivated when you’re depressed. Treating the depression will likely be the most effective way to increase your motivation.

The strategies described above for increasing motivation in specific situations may be useful as short-term fixes while you are addressing larger concerns. Increasing feelings of autonomy by giving yourself choices, increasing feelings of self-efficacy by ensuring that you choose goals that are obtainable yet somewhat challenging, and increasing feelings of relatedness by creating connections with people may be effective in getting you motivated. However, these strategies will not be sufficient to treat the depression which is the root cause of the lack of motivation. It is recommended that you seek professional care to help you through this difficult time in your life.

How to Get Back Motivation When You Lose It

How you interpret your successes and your failures is fundamental to how you understand your ability to be effective within the world (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). If you see your successes as proof that you are fundamentally a capable person and your failures as proof of your inadequacy, you are said to have a fixed mindset. If you have a fixed mindset, failure is devastating and difficult to recover from. 

In contrast, if you have a growth mindset you attribute your failures and successes to the effort that you put in. You didn’t get that good grade because you have a high IQ, but because you put time and effort into your studies. Similarly, you didn’t get a bad grade because you have a low IQ, but because you didn’t put in sufficient effort. People with growth mindsets don’t feel a devastating loss of motivation after a failure, but may in fact feel energized and motivated to put more effort into pursuing their goals.

Luckily, you can change your mindset. Children who received attribution retraining in the form of being told that an incorrect answer on a math problem was due to a lack of effort rather than a lack of ability, were energized by errors. They were motivated to continue trying to solve difficult problems. In contrast, children who didn’t receive this attribution retraining were devastated by incorrect answers. Their performance got worse after incorrect answers (Haimovitz & Dweck, 2017). Something as simple as telling yourself that your failures are not due to fundamental shortcomings but rather are due to things that are within your power to change may increase your motivation after a failure.

Articles About ​How to Get Motivated​

Here are some more articles that may help you get motivated:

• Self-Motivation: Definition, Examples, and Tips
• ​Motivational Mondays: Quotes, Ideas, & Tips
  
• Self Actualization: Definition, Needs, Examples, and Tips
• Goal Setting: How to Set and Achieve Your Goals​​
• ​Success Quotes: For Life, Motivation, Work, & More

Books About ​How to Get Motivated​​

Want to keep learning about how to get motivated? Check out these books:​​​

• How to Get Motivated in 60 Seconds: The Secrets to Instant Action
• Atomic Habits: an Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones​​
• The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)

Final Thoughts on Getting Motivated

Not all motivation is created equal. Intrinsic motivation, where joy is inherent in the performance of the act, and integrated motivation, where the act has become part of your self-identity, are the highest forms of motivation. You probably feel happy and fulfilled when you work on something you love or when you work on something important to you. 

External motivation, where you act to get rewards or to avoid punishment, is less effective. You may feel a sense of resentment or bitterness when working exclusively to earn rewards or avoid punishment. The opportunity to experience autonomy, competency, and relatedness in the pursuit of your goals can produce motivation that is deep, authentic, and resilient to obstacles. Moreover, knowing that genuine motivation comes from feelings of autonomy, competency, and relatedness, you can create systems that promote authentic drive in your children, your employees, your students, and anyone else who looks to you for leadership.

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References

• Cook, D. A., & Artino, A. R. (2016). Motivation to learn: an overview of contemporary theories. Medical Education, 50(10), 997-1014. 
• De Raedt, R., & Hooley, J. M. (2016). The role of expectancy and proactive control in stress regulation: A neurocognitive framework for regulation expectation. Clinical Psychology Review, 45, 45-55.
• Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256-273. 
• Elrod, H., & Osborn, D. (Eds.). (2018). Miracle Morning Millionaires: What the Wealthy Do Before 8 am That Will Make You Rich.
• Gero, A., Stav, Y., & Yamin, N. (2016). Increasing Motivation of Engineering Students: Combining ‘‘Real World’’ Examples in a Basic Electric Circuits Course. 32(6), 2460-2469.
• Gillison, F. B., Rouse, P., Standage, M., J., S. S., & Ryan, R. M. (2019). A meta-analysis of techniques to promote motivation for health behaviour change from a self-determination theory perspective. Health Psychology Review, 13(1), 110-130. 
• Haimovitz, K., & Dweck, C. S. (2017). The Origins of Children's Growth and Fixed Mindsets: New Research and a New Proposal. Child Development, 88(6), 1849-1859. 
• Moretro, T., Martens, L., Teixeira, P., Ferreira, V. B., Maia, R., Maugesten, T., & Langsrud, S. (2020). Is visual motivation for cleaning surfaces in the kitchen consistent with a hygienically clean environment? Food Control, 111, 1-9. 
• Parks, L., & Guay, R. P. (2009). Personality, values, and motivation. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(7), 675-684. 
• Pizzagalli, D. A. (2014). Depression, Stress, and Anhedonia: Toward a Synthesis and Integrated Model. Annual Reviews in Clinical Psychology, 10, 393-423.
• Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67. 
• Sharp, H., Baddoo, N., Hall, S., & Tracy and Robinson, H. (2009). Models of motivation in software engineering. Information and Software Technology, 51(1), 219-233.
• Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior  [other]. Free Press.
• Teixeira, P. J., Marques, M. M., & Palmeira, A. L. (2018). Associations between affect, basic psychological needs and motivation in physical activity contexts: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Revista Iberoamericana de Psicología del Ejercicio y el Deporte, 13(2), 225-233. ​

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