8.3 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?
- SWOT analysis
- Achievements
- Analyzing motivating activities
- Beta-Vision
- 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...
- Favorite quote/idea that resonates?
- Life values?
- Fulfilling activities?
- 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