A Coaching Power Tool Created by Maria Tsoutsani
(Health & Wellness Coach, GREECE)
Motivation:
“Τhe reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way”
“The general desire or willingness of someone to do something”
Motivate:
“Provide (someone) with a motive for doing something”
“Stimulate (someone’s) interest in or enthusiasm for doing something”
How we can generate motivation? How can we move an individual from amotivation to motivation?
People can be in different states in their life anywhere from in an amotivation state, to an extrinsic motivation state or an intrinsic motivation state and act or not act depending on which state they’re in
Both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, involve the intention to behave, even those that are not autonomous motivations. But when someone who is in amotivation state finds no value, rewards, or meaning in an act, he or she will likely have no intention of performing it; he or she will be amotivated.
The concept of amotivation describes people’s lack of intentionality and motivation—that is, to describe the extent to which they are passive, ineffective, or without purpose. Amotivation can take several forms. In the first form, people do not act because they feel they are not able to effectively attain outcomes. This type of amotivation occurs either as the result of a person’s perception that people cannot, through any action, control outcomes (universal helplessness) or because the person perceives that he or she personally cannot effectively perform the required actions. In either case, this first form of amotivation is based on a felt lack of competence. The second form of amotivation stems not from competence but a lack of interest, relevance, or value. People remain amotivated when behaviors have no meaning or interest for them, especially when it fails to connect with the fulfillment of needs. This second type of amotivation may be present even when the individual has the efficacy or competence to act. The third type of amotivation concerns defiance or resistance to influence. Here, what appears to be amotivation for a specific act is really a motivating nonaction or oppositional behavior to defy demands that are thwarting a basic need for autonomy or relatedness. Each of these types of amotivation may have a different duration and impact, and each has a unique set of determinants and dynamic implications.
When we are amotivated things remain the same. We don’t make any progress, maybe we set goals and talk about them for a long time but we never take the first step to act. What is needed is motivation to move on. We have two types of motivation.
One is extrinsic motivation which occurs from external rewards or punishment and somehow has a good result but not stable. That means that when the extrinsic motivation stops to be where the individual returns to their previous habits.
In psychology, intrinsic motivation is known as the best type of motivation which occurs when we act without any obvious external rewards. We simply enjoy an activity or see it as an opportunity to explore, learn, and actualize our potentials.” The word “intrinsic” means that something is inherent by nature. It is sometimes referred to as “inner”, which refers to something coming from within.
Together, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations make up the underlying reasons, attitudes, and goals that give rise to human behavior. They are essentially the “why” we do what we do
Intrinsic motivation is considered better than extrinsic motivation because people who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to be:
There are many activities we pursue simply for the enjoyment or satisfaction they bring about.
They may include activities like:
We don’t necessarily do these activities to produce something or be rewarded in any way, but because we enjoy the tasks and they make us feel happy or satisfied.
These feelings of enjoyment, happiness, or satisfaction are what psychologists called intrinsic rewards (sometimes called inner or internal rewards).
Intrinsic rewards drive intrinsic motivation.
Some examples of intrinsic rewards are
A person’s experience of autonomy, competence, and relatedness can affect their intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation can be facilitated or undermined under specific conditions. One of the most significant motivating factors is the feeling of competence. So, events and structures that conduce feelings of competence can enhance enjoyment. They include an optimal level of challenges, positive competence feedback, and a lack of demeaning evaluations.
But there is an important piece missing.
Inside motivation is only developed under a very specific condition. Intrinsic motivation comes from individuals feeling that they are doing the activity out of their “free choice”. In other words, one has to think that they have the autonomy to choose whether to engage in the behaviors.
Another factor that can impact intrinsic motivation is relatedness, which refers to how well one feels connected, secure, respected, and cared for. People can be intrinsically motivated to do an interesting activity alone. Therefore, relatedness is not a necessary condition for intrinsic motivation. Yet it is still an influential factor that can affect one’s intrinsically motivated behavior.
Self-application
How To Increase Intrinsic Motivation
Here are some intrinsic motivators you can use to get motivated:
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Look for the intrinsic reward
An intrinsic motivator only exists when an activity holds intrinsic value for the person who engages in it, so the activity has to hold such appeal or there will be no intrinsic motivation. Look for aspects of the activity that interest you, or internalize the innate reason why you want to participate.
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Engage in an optimal level of challenge
Challenge yourself with a task that is not easy, but also not so hard that it is unattainable. Stretching your limit and then achieving success can give you a tremendous sense of competence and boost internal motivation.
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Seek positive feedback
Receiving a badge or some kind of recognition for reaching a specific goal or level of task can also provide a sense of competence.
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Do it for yourself
The intrinsic drive can only exist when people can freely decide whether to engage or not. Choose a task that naturally interests you and do it for pure enjoyment, with no strings attached.
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Find a buddy
If possible, find a person to do the activity with you. Look for someone you can relate to and someone who can provide positive feedback without any demeaning criticism. Doing something as a team also has the added benefit of helping each other, generating a sense of competence and belonging.
Coaching application
How to Facilitate Autonomous Motivation and Internalization?
When a client is in amotivation state, this would typically occur because they receive persistently negative feedback about their performance or when they repeatedly fail.
So, the question really becomes how can we facilitate greater internalization and integration of extrinsic motivation or amotivation? People are more likely to internalize the motivation for behaviors that are transmitted therein. So, what comprises this facilitating environment specifically? First is autonomy support, this is perhaps the most important element in facilitating integrative processes. Autonomy support really begins with an understanding of the person that you’re trying to motivate or trying to get to internalize a value or a new way of being. When we are trying to motivate somebody else, we start by trying to understand their perspective or take what we considered the internal frame of reference. We want to know what that motivation looks like to them, what are the challenges and obstacles that they face. We’re much more likely to be able to understand the obstacles and the barriers to acting as they see it, and then be able to be helpful with them. So, we always begin an emphatic stance when we’re trying to motivate someone else. In addition to taking the internal frame of reference, a good motivator encourages self-initiation and input, and why is that? Because when people can make inputs or take initiation concerning their own activities, they feel more ownership of them, and that ownership, of course, translates into greater internalization. Besides, when you’re trying to help somebody acquire a new behavior, you want to give them as many meaningful choices as possible, both in how to go about the task that they have to do, or the strategies that they adopt. People would like to do things in their own way, again, creating a greater sense of ownership and engagement in any kind of task. When people have to do things a certain way or when they have to engage in a certain standard or meet a certain behavior, that it’s good to have a rationale for why that’s the case. It’s very hard for anybody to autonomously engage in something unless they, themselves have a good reason for doing it. So, providing a rationale is one way that you can help people anchor themselves more autonomously in a task. Finally, supporting autonomy means always avoiding the use of controlling language like: have to, should, must, which has people feeling pressured and control from the outside, and instead of providing a language, which involves as much choice and as much ownership on their part as possible. Also, not using rewards in a controlling way, as another issue in supporting autonomy, becomes really important. Because so often, we try and use rewards to motivate something, and they backfire in terms of creating that sense of ownership and internalization
Now, beyond autonomy support, internalization also requires support for competence, because we don’t really ever internalize something and make it our own unless it’s something we feel effective at doing.
Αsk your client 3 questions:
1) Question number one. Can you do it? Do you believe you can do it? Do you have the time, the knowledge, and the training to do what you’re being asked to do? If the answer is Yes, good. If the answer is no, break the goal down, ask the client for baby steps, breaking down what they need to know, to learn, to gain.
2) Second question. Will it work? Do you believe what you dream of doing? the process? Will it work? believing that the behavior would lead to the outcome, that takes education, we have to show them the data, we have to show them some theory, we have to teach them why this might work.
3) Third question. Is it worth it? (motivational question) Do you believe the consequences? BF Skinner talks about selection by consequences. From the day you were born, everything you did was because you wanted something for doing it. Consequences. Your clients have to be convinced that it’s worth it.
If your clients answer yes to those 3 questions, they feel competent, they feel competent at doing worthwhile work. When they feel competent at doing worthwhile work, they are more likely to be self-motivated. We inspire people to feel competent by praise, and positive feedback really helps people stay motivated, but the positive feedback has to be for the things that have been their own initiative, rather than things that have simply been what we’ve demanded of them. Praise should focus on effort and specific accomplishments, not on comparison with others for it to have its most positive effects on motivation and internalization.
Finally, internalization as we’ve said, really requires support for relatedness, because we’re likely to most internalize the values and the principles and the standards of people to whom we would like to be connected. When we’re trying to help people internalize, then we want to convey respect for them as individuals, so that they can feel valued and significant. Again, when they face challenges in internalizing or engaging in a new behavior that we’re carrying as they engage in those struggles, we create an atmosphere of warmth and inclusion. People tend to be a lot more motivated when they feel like the motivator is someone who cares for them. We often say this is the cheapest motivational intervention in the world, because all it takes sometimes is just a smile, and our appreciation of the presence of the person that we’re trying to motivate that will lead them to care more about the setting and be more likely to want to internalize what’s going on therein.
All these have important implications for coaches because they suggest the possibility of facilitating helpful shifts in the underlying motivation for particular goals. This is particularly salient for individuals faced with the challenge of working towards goals that are not self-generated and are accompanied by a diminished sense of ownership. When imposed goals become problematic for a person, a coach may facilitate this shift through the use of autonomy support strategies (as described earlier) to help the coachee better understand both the goal and their relationship to it. Ultimately the coach will be interested in helping a coachee to explore what deeper personal relevance such goals might have and what choices they might be able to exercise about them. For example, Peter might have the goal to jog for 2 hours a week and hold it largely for external reasons (e.g. medical advice). However, his reason for holding the goal might change over time as he discovers ways in which the goal unexpectedly expresses his values (e.g. positive modeling for his children) or developing interests (e.g. enjoyment in running).
This example illustrates the important psychological processes of internalization and integration, which can occur when individuals are encouraged to reflect on their goals and explore ways that they might be more freely endorsed. The developmental trajectory described above suggests that by helping people through the process of internalization and integration, coachees are more likely to become better at not only noticing the quality of their goal motivation (i.e. the reasons for adoption) but also, potentially, better at transforming how they experience goal striving, either by reframing the personal meaning of externally regulated goals or by making decisions to disengage from goals that lack intrinsic interest and/or engage with goals that are.
So, we have seen that internalization has a lot of benefits for people and their performance, and we also see now that there are specific processes through which that internalization can be enhanced, and these are the focus of many of our interventions within autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Resources
Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness 1st Edition by Richard M. Ryan (Author), Edward L. Deci (Author)
https://www.coursera.org/learn/self-determination-theory