The 5 To's of Motivation

As a professional speaker one of the most common requests I get is to come in and speak to “get our people motivated” – although this sounds easy, it is not. Most organizations that make this request, we find out, have hired other “motivational speakers” before and it either did not work; or, if it did work, it was short term, and it wore off very quickly.

Why do you suppose this is? ---- Most of the time it is because we don’t truly make a connection with the audience about what really motivates them. Instead, speakers talk about superficial or surface things that may not connect with the people listening, or they treat it like a pep rally (yes think back to high school pep rallies). Either of these will produce super short-term results if any.

So how do we do get better at motivation? We need to help people connect with things deep inside them. It is well documented that true motivation comes from internal things, not external things. Great leaders figure out how to draw this out of the people that follow them.

First – we need to understand that true motivation is internal, not external. Think about the phrase “people work for their reasons, not others reasons” – a very true phrase most people agree with quickly, however, do little to make it work in their worlds.                 

Second – we need to understand that there are five basic internal motivational triggers. These five things sit in our subconscious mind and drive our thoughts and actions every day.

Those five internal motivational triggers are:

                  1 – To Do

                  2 – To Be

                  3 – To Have

                  4 – To Accomplish

                  5 – To Be Known For

Each of these five things sit quietly in the back of our subconscious mind and gently guide us to make decisions on things every day. They guide us on what to do, what not to do, what to think about, what not to think about, what to prioritize, what not to prioritize etc. We all have all five of them. However, we do not use them or weigh them all the same.

Here’s an example – if you have always wanted to accomplish something, say finish some level of schooling, your subconscious mind will always be looking for ways to help you achieve this. However, if you don’t care about it – you will never do it, or even look for it. And if someone else, like your employer, helps you make this possible you will remember that on a totally different level.

So, let me ask – what motivational mistake have you made? Are you truly seeking to find out the internal motivators of those who follow you? – If you don’t know, you should find out. If you don’t like the answers, or don’t know how to figure it out, contact us today.

If you want to know more, check out my book on motivation.