In my quest for mastery of motivation, I was doing some research and came across a theory of motivation with which I was not familiar. It is called the arousal theory of motivation. The theory states that we all have a certain level of arousal with which we are happy, our “optimum” level, and we are motivated (impelled) to maintain ourselves at that level.  We will avoid a level that’s too high, and avoid a level that is too low.

The optimum level of arousal varies among people. This should not come as a surprise to anyone; all you need to do is look at the people in your family or your friends or your fellow employees to see how different we all are in the levels of arousal we seek. Cousin Joe drives a super powerful café style motorcycle, and occasionally likes to stand on the seat while he’s moving at 60 miles per hour, whereas Uncle Harry just likes to snooze in front of the television.

Our state of arousal is impacted by our physical, intellectual and our emotional experiences. The converse is also true, that is, we do the things we do because we are motivated to do them in our drive to maintain that optimum level. We want to maintain a certain level of arousal, and so we do (are motivated to do) the things that will keep us at that state of arousal.

Arousal theory explains why some people are thrill seekers. The level of arousal that makes them happy is very high, so it takes extreme physical activities like paragliding or motocross to make them happy.

But our arousal level isn’t related to just physical activities. It also relates to intellectual activities and emotional activities. Arousal theory can explain why some people love to learn, constantly reading non-fiction books, or collecting degrees. It can also explain the popularity of romance novels, as people seek to raise their emotional arousal to a level that makes them happy.

There is a fascinating corollary to the arousal theory of motivation called the Yerkes-Dodson law.  It states that your performance on different tasks will be impacted differently by your arousal level. You performance on both simple and difficult tasks will initially be better as your arousal level starts to increase, but a point will come where your performance on the difficult tasks will suffer as arousal level increases. Your performance on the simple tasks, however, will not suffer by the increase in arousal level.

This is fascinating, but is there a way we can use this information to increase our motivation?

The way we use the Yerkes-Dodson law is by taking control of our physical environment. Our environment, along with how valuable our pursuit is and how confident we are in our competence, determines how motivated we are. Taking control of our environment means examining the task we are doing.

Is it a difficult task, or is it a simple task? If it is the former, we need to be extra careful that our environment does not over arouse us. Music blasting, television distracting, children running in and out, phone ringing, email announcements, are all going to raise our arousal level. A high arousal level is not what we want. If this is the situation you are facing, a difficult task and an over arousing environment, you have two options:

1) Change the environment, which means reducing the things in your environment that are arousing. Turn off the television, turn down the music, lock the door, silence your phone.

2) If you can’t change the environment, move to a less stimulating environment. Go to the library, or to the book store.

3) If you can’t change the environment, and you can’t move to a less stimulating one, change tasks. This just may not be the time to do a difficult task. Instead, find a simple task on which your performance will not suffer by the high arousal level of your present environment.

Can you think of another way we can use the Yerkes-Dodson law to be in charge of our environment? Please share your thoughts on this by leaving a comment for your fellow readers.

Feel like you’re in a rut? To mix metaphors, does it feel like you are a record (remember vinyl) that has a scratch on it and you just keep repeating the same old stuff. I frequently feel this way as I am flossing my teeth at night. “Didn’t I just floss my teeth?” Do you ever feel this way, that you have settled into a routine, that if your life were a train, you would just be a passenger, looking out the window?

So how do we get out of this rut?

Here’s five simple strategies we can derive from the model for self motivation guaranteed to get you out of that rut:

1. Revisit your vision. Your vision is the change you want in your life. Maybe it’s a better paying job, maybe it’s a healthier life style, maybe it’s starting your own home based business. Whatever it is, you need to stay connected to your vision. Is your vision worthwhile? Is it worthwhile to you? It needs to be in order for it to be motivating. Get in touch with all the reasons you want to make this change. Maybe even revisit the reasons; are there other reasons for making this change that hadn’t occurred to you before?

2. Look to see if there is something you are lacking that is keeping you from moving forward. Maybe there is a skill that would make your path much smoother. If so, find out where you can gain that skill and go get it. Sometimes we know exactly what it is that is sabotaging our dreams, but we are afraid to face it, because we are afraid there is no way to work around the problem. Ignoring a problem only guarantees it will stay a problem.   Ask people in your social environment for advice. Look to organizations in your social environment for solutions.

3. Look to your social environment: find an organization of like minded people. There’s nothing guaranteed to get you moving again than the thought of having to tell other people how you are progressing.  There are additional benefits. You can learn by the experiences of the other people, (learning by others’ mistakes is one of the least painful ways to learn); you can find vendors and other resources you need. I belong to a marketing club and a public speaking club.

There are more organizations than you can shake a stick at.  The Google directory of organizations found at http://www.google.com/Top/Society/Organizations/ has 1,000’s.

4.  Change your physical environment. Sometimes I just don’t want to go sit down at my desk another evening. So I change it in some way. It doesn’t need to be a major change, sometimes just a new poster over the desk is enough. Make it a motivational poster or a picture of some reward you are going to give yourself when you have made your dream come true. Sometimes I change my physical environment by taking my laptop to my local Borders and work in different surroundings. I find being around people gives me a different perspective.

5. Help others. Okay, maybe this isn’t derived from the model, but it’s still  a great way to make you feel useful and build your confidence in your abilities. It can also make you feel grateful. Here’s a great website to get started:

http://charity.lovetoknow.com/List_of_Nonprofit_Organizations

Getting out of the rut is about taking charge. Get off your seat, move to the front of the train, put on your striped cap, and start driving the train.

I was reading an article by a spiritual leader last month who wrote, “Do nothing unless it brings joy.” It got me thinking.  On its face it seems like good advice; if you aren’t having fun doing something, why bother doing it. But if you think about it for a while, it doesn’t take long for you to see the problem with it.

The problem is, in order to achieve many, if not most of the things that are important to us, we need to pay the dues. In order for me to lose weight, I am going to have to get off the couch and exercise, burn some calories. If I don’t like exercise, I’m not going to be happy, let alone joyful. In order for me to become financially self sufficient, I’m going to have to cut back on my spending. If I am used to spoiling myself, this is not going to make me joyful.

Does this mean the spiritual leader’s advice in incorrect? I’m not sure. Maybe joy is different than happiness. Maybe when he uses the word joy, he is talking about more than just happiness, but rather a feeling that one is doing something meaningful, or productive, or that expresses our love for another or others, or that helps a person in need.

I like this different definition of joy. I think about last night, when I watched Domino, a movie starring Micky Rourke and Kierra Knightley. It isn’t a particularly life affirming movie, but I liked it, as I knew I would, as I had seen it in the past. It gave me pleasure, though it didn’t give me joy.

I think there may be a continuum. On the one end is joy, on the other end is pleasure and in between there is happiness. Pleasure is self focused, that is, the good feeling is totally focused on me. Joy, at the other end, is outwardly focused, expressing our love for others (which would include animals). In between, happiness, would be, perhaps focused inward, but in self affirming ways, activities in which we are growing to be better people.

I think what the spiritual leader is talking about is an attitude toward our activities. Getting off the couch and exercising to burn calories, though not a source of pleasure, is certainly a source of happiness, if we keep in mind why we are doing it. Cutting back on my spending is not going to give me pleasure, but it may bring happiness, as I am affirming myself as a responsible person, and even joy, if I have a family or someone who is financially reliant on me, and my becoming financially independent will inure to their benefit.

Do I suggest that you only do activities that are outwardly focused, that express your love for the world? Since I can’t promise to do it myself (I’m not giving up my action DVD’s) I’m not going to suggest you do it. Instead I see it as more of an aspiration, something we should aspire to, aspire to doing more things that bring joy, and less that merely bring pleasure.

It’s a good attitude to have.

I discovered motivation while earning my masters in education. After studying about motivation in learning, I studied motivation in the workplace. One model I enjoyed learning about was The Quick Motivation Method, created by Thomas L. Quick in his book of the same name. In this model the boss decides what the positive choice is in a particular situation, and then the boss motivates the employee to view that same choice as positive to the employee as well.

The boss does this by increasing the motivational value of that particular choice.

Quick has five pointers for increasing the motivational value of a choice:

1. People have reasons for what they do.
2. Whatever people choose to do, they do it to gain something they believe is good for them. The achievement must be sufficiently important for them to choose it.
3. The person has to perceive he or she can attain the goal.
4. The conditions under which the job (the activity) is done (the situation) can affect its value to the doer or his expectation of success.
5. The manager can increase the employee’s motivation by increasing the value of the goal to the employee, increasing the employee’s expectation of reaching it, and enhancing the situation surrounding the performance.

The lesson I learned from Quick and other writers and researchers on motivation, whether it be on the job setting, in the class room or on the playing field are the three most important factors of motivation:

1. the person must have an important goal or strongly felt desire,
2. the person must feel that they have the power to achieve their goal or acquire that which they desire, and
3. the person’s environment plays a large rule in whether they are successful.

I used this information to create the model for self motivation. Rather than having someone else motivate you, you use the model to motivate yourself. You have the most knowledge as to what is most important for you. You have the most impact over how confident you are in your abilities, and have the power to increase your abilities. You have the strongest impact on your environment.

The model for self motivation is the way to achieve your goals and make your dreams come true.  Learning how to apply the model for self motivation in your life will guarantee you will be successful.

In a prior blog posting I wrote about making promises to myself and how powerful a motivator that promise was. So long as I just “sort of” decided to maybe do something it wasn’t a sure thing, not even close. As an example, say I knew I had to work on an upcoming presentation, but was feeling a bit unmotivated, and would have “preferred” to stop at Redbox on the way home and pick up a dvd. If I leveraged my motivation and didn’t stop on the way home, I would be in pretty good shape, except for the fact I do have dvd’s at home. Once, however, I made a promise, to myself, that I would not watch a dvd, I knew my work would get done. So promises to oneself can be very powerful motivators.

But promises to other people are just as powerful, for example, when I promise you I will walk with you tomorrow after work. When tomorrow comes, I act on my promise.

When tomorrow comes, maybe I’m not quite as up for it (in other words, my motivation isn’t as high) but I have made a promise.

This is one reason why getting a partner in your vision can be so helpful in staying motivated. A partner is someone you can make a promise to.

When I made the promise to walk, the idea of a walk seemed like a good idea. I knew it would be healthy for me. This was more than enough to motivate me to make the promise to my partner, especially since I wouldn’t have to actually walk until tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, and the shoes have to hit the road, the thought that it is healthy for me may not be enough to get me going. But, I had made a promise. What I had done by making the promise was leverage my motivation.

So when you and your partner are discussing plans, don’t waffle, don’t say, “maybe we’ll walk tomorrow.” Make a promise, “Tomorrow we will go walking.”

A promise has power, a waffle does not.

A much quoted comment about motivation goes as follows:

Ability is what you can do; motivation is what you will do.

This is true, so far as it goes. However, we need to be clear as to what we mean when we discuss your “ability”, because your ability has two components. The first component is what you are able to do now, that is, your present ability. This refers to three aspects:

1. your present skill set,
2. your present knowledge,
3. your present experience.

The second component of ability is your ability to increase your abilities, that is, to supplement the three aspects of your present ability. Each of the three aspects of your present ability can be enhanced or supplemented, and, in fact, should be.

We enhance our skill set by seeking opportunities to gain new skills and to increase the skills we already have. For example, if you want to play a bigger role in your job, explore options offered by your employer to gain new skills. Many employers offer on the job training to help their employees become more productive.

We enhance our present knowledge by taking reading books, by listening to experts in our field, and by doing our own experiments and research.

We expand our experience by getting away from our desks and doing things, and by taking risks.

Effectively using our social environment, the people and organizations that surround us and that are available to us, is the way to achieve this growth in our ability.

Social environment recognizes what Lone Man of the Teton Sioux said, “I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself.”

So take advantage of your social environment to increase your ability. Look for degree and non degree programs in your community colleges, enhance your ability with on the job training, trade organizations, professional associations. The resources in your social environment by which you can increase your ability is endless.

Increase your ability, and then apply motivation to it!

I was reading an article in a recent issue of Conde Nast Traveler, by Allegra Huston. She shared how she had been a timid child, and adult, until one day, on a trip to Sri Lanka with some friends, she was presented with the opportunity to scrub an elephant in a river. While scrubbing his giant ears she spotted a huge monitor lizard swim by, but she kept on scrubbing. As she writes, “I was not entirely fearless, but the seduction of being close to the elephant, tending to him, banished fear into the blur of everything that was outside the charmed circle the two of us made.”

As I read this story I thought about my fears, which, like Ms. Huston’s, have been with me since childhood. My father was a somewhat domineering man, and I went away to college with no sense of my own power. But things happen to us, and we change. Sometimes it’s one amazing event, like scrubbing an elephant in a river. For most of us, I believe, it is hints of the life we could be living if we would overcome our timidity.

For me, becoming a lawyer was the major event that caused the change. Instead of trying to please people by figuring out what they wanted me to do, as a lawyer I was telling people what to do. And not only was I telling them what to do, they were paying me to tell them what to do.  If you need permission to be bold and forceful I can’t think of a more powerful way of getting that permission than having someone pay you a retainer. I highly recommend law school for scared timid people.

The  two lessons:

1. Keep your eyes open for the opportunities

Life changing opportunities present themselves all the time. But they may not be as dramatic as the opportunity to scrub an elephant, so you need to keep your eyes and your heart open. Stay open to the possibilities.

2. Walk through the door.

When you see an opportunity, be open to it. Major life changes do not magically occur, even though the opportunities to make these changes will magically appear. So when they do appear, we need to accept them, and to step through the door when it opens. Ms. Huston had to step into the river when she was offered the opportunity to scrub the elephant. I had to apply for law school.

One of my affirmations is, “When I have an inspired thought, I act on it. When a door opens, I walk through it.”

Fear is overcome when we make a decision that something is more important than the fear. What is more important than your fear?

In my immediately prior posting, I shared with you the importance of making our repetitive tasks, like eating healthy foods, or working out, into habits. In today’s posting I want to share six tips to creating motivating habits out of your repetitive tasks.

Creating a habit is not complicated; repetition of an activity makes it a habit. Unfortunately, though it seems easy to create bad habits, doing a good thing repetitively is a bit more difficult. Here are some tips I gathered to help you make habits of those repetitive behaviors you know you need to accomplish.

1. Get clear on the habit you want to create. The clearer you are as to exactly what you want to do every day, the more likely you are to do it every day. This also means write it down.
2. Get clear on why you want to make this behavior into a habit. Be clear on the benefits of the habit. The more important it is to you, the more likely you are to do it, every day.
3. Do the behavior at the same time every day. As I shared yesterday, the habit I wanted to implement was doing my affirmations. The problem was I was so busy during the day, the only time I remembered to do it was as I was winding down, in bed, prior to drifting off.  Then I had a tough choice: do I turn on the light, fire up the computer and do my affirmations, or do I just roll over and go to bed and the heck with establishing this habit. I solved the problem (just today, in fact) by printing out a copy of the affirmations, and laying it on top of my computer.  First thing in the morning when I fire up the computer to start my work day, there are my affirmations. I will do them first thing, even before I read my emails.
4. Start small. This is especially helpful if you want to get in the habit of saving money. If you are like most people, you don’t think you make enough money to save anything. So just save a little amount, something that won’t hurt very much. Then, once you are in the habit of saving, every time you get a raise, you are much more likely to take a portion of that raise and put it into savings.
5. Enlist your social environment. Depending on the habit you want to establish, figure out how you can get the people around you to make you stick to your behavior for long enough for it to become a habit. For example, if you want to make a habit of taking a walk every evening after dinner, consider enlisting your spouse to help you reach the required number.
6. Keep track. Keep a journal and note each time you do the behavior. Writing it down forces you to be intentional.

How to create a habit is not complex: do it daily for three weeks. But it may be difficult. These six tips will help you as you make those oh-so-important repetitive tasks into productive habits.

One of the things that determine how motivated you are is how confident you are in your competence, what’s referred to as your successability. So you want to take steps to increase your successability and thereby increase your motivation.

This means that self motivation requires that you be intentional. Instead of just going on automatic, you take responsibility for your motivation.

It may seem paradoxical, but one of the best ways to increase your successability is by developing good habits, activities and behaviors that you do automatically.

A habit is an acquired behavior that is regularly followed until it becomes almost involuntary.   Research on habits, we are told, says that repeating an action for 21 days in a row creates a habit.

Getting good habits is so important because our goals and our dreams are generally out of our direct control. What I mean by that is that they are generally results, not behaviors.  For example, if my goal is to lose 50 pounds, aside from draconian actions like cutting off my legs, I have no direct control over that goal, because losing 50 pounds is not an activity or a behavior. What I do have control over, however, is the actions and behaviors that will result in me losing 50 pounds, behaviors like replacing gravy and potatoes with salads with low calorie dressing.

The model for self motivation teaches us that we need to break down our desired change into goals, the accomplishment of which will result in our change occurring, and breaking down our goals into the component tasks, the completion of which will result in the goal being accomplished. Some of the tasks are one time actions; others are continuous actions, repetitive tasks. For example, if one of my goals is to get physically fit, a one-time task is “join a gym.” A repetitive task would be “go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

What we want to do is make the repetitive tasks into habits.

It’s the successful completion of lots of little behaviors like these that result in us achieving our goals. Making habits out of these little behaviors, the repetitive tasks, therefore, is one of the best ways to guarantee we will successfully achieve our goals.

In my case, I know that saying affirmations is a very positive behavior for me, so I decided to make saying affirmations into a habit. I quickly found out that though it is easy to say, “do something 21 days in a row and you will create a habit”, developing a habit is not as easy as I thought it would be. Because I knew good habits were so important, I undertook some study to find out how to make a behavior into a habit.

What I would like for you to take from this blog is that developing good habits is a great way to increase your successability and increase your motivation. In my next blog I will tell you what my study of habit-making revealed and share with you some strategies for making those oh-so-necessary behaviors and activities into habits.