talk-end-of-procrastination/slides/motivation.md
2023-08-30 16:11:28 +02:00

9.3 KiB

Motivation

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Why do we do the things we do?


External motivation

Carrot and stick; someone else sets our path.

  • numbs our self-motivation
  • feels meaningless
  • makes it easier to procrastinate

Internal motivation

We have our own target and we follow it.

  • progress feels more rewarding
  • brings good mood
  • engages creativity and learning

Goal-based motivation

We want to achieve something in the future.

  • Pros: it works!
  • Cons: it causes us damage; not sustainable
  • long struggle, followed by a short rush of joy that quickly evaporates
  • requires more and more demanding goals

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Hedonic treadmill 🔗

Humans quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.

The reward for finishing a major goal is not worth a long struggle to get there.

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Arousal addiction

(not about sexual arousal)

Addiction to new, stronger stimuli

created by setting bigger and bigger goals.


Journey-based motivation

Enjoy the ride, the destination is secondary.

  • happiness now, not just at the end
  • unlocks flow
  • flow brings contentment and mastery
  • ...which in turn brings results

Meaning

Your actions may have positive impact on others,

adding strong foundations for a lasting motivation.

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Going beyond an individual

  • helping others
  • being part of something greater
  • leaving a lasting legacy

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Group vision

Cooperation of individual visions

helps the growth of one's potential

and boosts the entire group.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.


TOOL: Personal Vision

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What is the direction of your journey?

What gets out of bed in the morning?

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How to build a Personal Vision?

  1. SWOT analysis
  2. Achievements
  3. Analyzing motivating activities
  4. Beta-Vision
  5. Final Personal Vision

Step 1:

Personal SWOT

  • S - Strengths
  • W - Weaknesses
  • O - Opportunities
  • T - Threats

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Time to reflect on yourself!

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Strengths

  • skills, traits and qualities you have
  • using them supports flow
  • personal vision makes use of these as much as possible

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Weaknesses

  • qualities you lack; limitations and negative traits
  • using them retards flow
  • personal vision avoids them if possible

These can be improved, but don't devote too much time to it.

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Opportunities

  • possibilities today's world offers to us
  • using them supports flow
  • personal vision builds on them

Only a few will be used. The rest needs to be rejected and banished

to gain focus, clarity and mastery

to avoid decision paralysis or regrets.

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Threats

  • risks, possible negative impacts or scenarios
  • take them into account
  • recognize them and be prepared
  • awareness helps with facing a potential fear

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My SWOT

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Strengths

  • attention to detail, carefulness, looking for perfection
  • enjoy exploring and learning new technologies
  • like to solve problems and mysteries in tech
  • life-long programming experience

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Weaknesses

  • lacking in open confrontation, group arguments
  • introverted, social interactions are taxing
  • cautious in opinions, not an 'influencer'

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Opportunities

  • contribute to open source development
  • use college degree on distributed systems
  • change jobs for
    • different role
    • better pay
    • more aligned tech stack
  • get exposure as an expert
  • contribute to the state-of-the-art
  • share knowledge through talks and blog

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Threats

  • changed role: boring / stressful / annoying
  • changed job:
    • low pay / annoying co-workers / toxic workplace / long commute
    • having to use Windows

Step 2:

Personal Achievements

  • things you are proud of or that brought you joy
  • provides specific evidence of your strengths
  • helps to gain confidence and think positively

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My Achievements

  • finished college with a cool master's thesis
  • became a dev team leader
  • self-hosting the services I use via VPS
  • extracted ERP legacy tax functionality via a strategy pattern
  • built and coded a split keyboard
  • learned to type using the Workman layout
  • ...

Step 3:

Analyzing motivating activities

Find out what drives you; strengthen your vision.

Categories of activities:

  • bringing personal growth
  • creating legacy
  • building relationships
  • with deeper meaning

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Growth : Legacy : Relationships : Meaning

An activity should ideally fit into multiple categories.

Goal: find groups of activities that support each other.

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My Activities

  • writing readable code, testing, refactoring
  • exploring new technologies and approaches
  • contributing to open source projects
  • learning through books and conferences
  • knowledge sharing through blog, mentoring, talks
  • working with colleagues - reviews, discussions
  • research of innovative solutions
  • solving problems, making software more useful

Step 4:

Beta-Vision

Finding a personal vision takes effort and time.

Finding a beta version is easier

and you won't procrastinate before finding it!

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Answer these...

  1. Favorite quote/idea that resonates?
  2. Life values?
  3. Fulfilling activities?
  4. Meaningful activities?

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My Beta-Vision

  • coding useful software on a daily basis
  • continually learning from others
  • sharing my knowledge with others
  • sharing code publicly

Step 5:

Final Personal Vision

A few paragraphs of what you want to be doing,

taking into account the analysis from the previous steps.

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My Final Vision

I'm still iterating.


Act Now!

How can I incorporate my vision in my daily life?

Starting small is fine, as long as you start!

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My Start

I started fixing defects in Android apps I use.

It covers:

  • coding useful software
  • learning from others
  • sharing code publicly