Competing, winning, obtaining something is a constant race and for that we need motivation. Everyday people motivate themselves to reach the next goal, the next higher level of milestone. When we are students we have goals such as become an engineer, then it is get married to “most eligible” partner, then it is buy a car and house and life goes on.
We listen to motivational speakers to get motivated to achieve, we look at successful people and want what they have. Is it really about hard work or working to “achieve” what we want? Do we really understand what it takes to have sustained motivation that really brings excellence?
There are essentially two types of motivation. One is achievement motivation where “we want to have something” and another is contribution motivation – “where we enjoy making a difference by our contribution”.
Achievement Motivation
This kind of motivation is about the “end goal”. Here the focus is not on what we give, it is about “obtaining” something, “impressing” someone or being “better than someone else or others”. The focus here is not on the real core of “value creation” that is real source of any success.
This kind of motivation is not easy to sustain and requires a consist internal push. In this motivation the journey is not the reward the destination is. In this we may be successful but our success may not be built on creating value and may be it is built on manipulating to get what we want. This is akin to doing well in exams but not learning anything.
Contribution Motivation
This is a slow burning fire that is consistent, steady and self sustaining. The quality of our engagement is deeper in this as we are focused on making a difference in our lives and others lives. Though there appears to be no direct guarantee of success – as we want to give the universe ensures we also get what we want. The appears to be no control over outcomes but we are focused on the real core of success – that is “value creation”.
This motivation unleashes higher level of “creative intelligence” for better overall outcomes as the journey itself is significant part of the reward and the anxiety of outcomes is not paralyzing but converts into creative fire.
Life is built on contribution and achievements / rewards are simply the by-product of constantly adding value in life… be motivated to make a contribution and your motivation will have the real power.
