7.6 KiB
Motivation
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.
Group vision
Cooperation of individual visions
helps the growth of our own potential
and boosts the entire group.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
TOOL: Personal Vision
How to get one?
- 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
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