BUT IT’S NOT ABOUT MOTIVATION

Among the things I hear a lot, and from all kinds of sources, is “the need for motivation.”

“I guess I just need more motivation.” “If I had more motivation, I could get myself to exercise regularly, or pursue my true passions.” “I would have finished the project, but I just ran out of motivation.”

Fascinating lines. Lines in my opinion that create the very problem they bewail. “How is that?” you ask. Simple— if we recognize that there are always premises and assumptions and unspoken presuppositions in everything we say, and if we look behind the words to identify the silent assumptions in these words, what do we find? What premises lurk behind these particular words?

The answer is that there are several assumptions. First, the assumption that this thing called “motivation” is like petrol for your car. You can have enough of it and you can run short of it. It is like gas in the tank of your car. From time to time you have to visit a Motivation Station and fill up on “motivation.” Of course, that’s running with the nominalization (“motivation”) and treating the referent behind this term as if it were a thing. Second, the assumption that “motivation” is an external thing. It is something you get, have, don’t have, need more of, run out of, etc. Third, the assumption that it is outside your control. You ran out of it, and now you’re stuck until you can figure out where you can get a fresh supply.

Now if you’re a skilled in NLP, you immediately recognized that there’s a problem in the kind of language being used to frame the complaint. You know that a “nominalization” is creating a distorted and disempowering map about the territory. And with that level of comprehension, you know that the solution lies in de-nominalizing (turning the noun-like-verb back into an actual verb).

“What do you need more ‘motivation’ for?” “What is your motive? How much or big is your motive?” “What are you moving away from as a dis-value and what are you moving toward as a value?” “What values move you? To what extent? In what context?” “How did you represent and frame that value as moving, as your motive, when you felt a lot of energy and passion?”

And if you come from the Neuro-Semantic NLP perspective, you also know something else. Namely, people —all people—are already motivated. It is the very nature of the human experience. We are all —always— motivated. The question is not whether we are motivated or not, but toward what or away-from what are we motivated? We all have motives already—

values, beliefs, and meanings. The only question is: “What are your motives? How vivid, rich, empowering, etc. are those motives? Do you know how to keep them vividly present in your consciousness?”

And from the Self-Actualization Psychology perspective: “What are the innate human needs and drives that are currently driving you? Where are you on the hierarchy of needs? And what matrix of belief frames inform your drives? And how well do your accurately gratify those needs with true satisfiers?”

Know about the Meaning and Performance Axes informs you that the question of motivation is really a question of where you are on the Meaning scale and the Performance scale, and how well you are synergizing your highest meanings with your best performances. And when you know that, you know this secret truth about motivation: The door of motivation is locked and unlocked from the inside.

So, that’s why the question is never a motivation question. The question is a meaning question, and/or a performance question, and/or a question of your ability to synergize both. So if you lack motivation, here are some things to do:

1) Check the quality and kind of your meanings. The meanings you give to anything determines how you experience that thing and the state it elicits in you. What meaning do you give to— exercise, work, hobby, etc.? What is the level of that meaning? What is the quality of that meaning?

2) Check the quality and competence of your performance. How do you act on that meaning? What are the actions that you take on a regular basis to actualize that meaning?

3) Check for interferences. Are there any counter-meanings that are in your way? If so, what? Is there a limiting belief, decision, etc. interferring? Or is there a distorted understanding? Are there any counter-behaviors that are in your way? Any habits that undermine your motivation? Any habitual lifestyle activities that dampen and inhibit you?

The door to your motivational life is open and closed from your inner world— the world of your semantics and your neurology. Your “motivation” is not determined by other people, by events, by experiences. It is determined by your interpretation of those things. It is governed by your interpretative style as informed by your meanings.

Want more motivation? Then learn to win the inner game of your meanings. Become a top- notch meaning-maker and a quality meaning-maker. Then winning the outer game of passionate motivation and focus will be a cinch. To your highest meanings and best performances!