Evaluating Your Previous Motivations

Can I be vulnerable for a minute? Just to be clear, I don’t plan to empty all my baggage onto the table, and I probably won’t cry as I type this. However, self-disclosure and introspection could have some value here - not just for me, but for you as the reader. 

I spent the first five years of my career in ministry. I would love to tell you that everything I did came from a desire to honor God and lead others into a deeper relationship with Jesus. At the same time, I would be lying to you if I said that was always the case 100% of the time. 

If you had approached me then, I would have told you that my priority was helping teenagers build a relationship with God. However, I now believe much of what I did was driven by a desire to build my ego or reputation. 

Obviously, there are a couple of problems here. I regret that my motives were not entirely pure and authentic, and I’ve learned from that experience. However, my greatest concern is that I didn’t understand my primary motivation at the time. It doesn’t bother me because it’s a deep regret. It annoys me because I wonder how many other people are still unaware of what truly motivates them.

You can be an expert in the field of motivation and still fail mightily in your efforts to unlock your motivation and accomplish the tasks that matter most to you. Recognizing why you are motivated the way you are is a deeply reflective process, so as you begin to think about mastering your motivation, you must take the time to perform a motivational audit that includes the following three steps.

Identify: What motivated you to do what you did?

Since motivation plays a role in everything we do, everything we do is inspired by motivation, and there’s value in looking back to consider what motivated you to follow a particular path. As a child, what motivated you to build certain friendships? Why did you choose to participate in different hobbies? What led you to pursue a specific college, career, or spouse? Coming to the present day, what made you want to live in your current house or community, and why are you still there? What’s the reasoning behind the way you structure your days? Why do you eat some foods and not others? 

You don’t have to limit yourself to decisions. You can also think about specific achievements. Have you ever gotten a promotion? Received an award? Reached an important milestone? Take a moment and play your personal highlight reel in your head.

As you recall these moments, I don’t only want you to think about the events themselves. I want you to go even deeper and consider what led you to take that step, make that choice, or pursue that goal. What were you hoping to accomplish? What was your desired result? What value would that result have had for you? What do you wish would have gone differently?

You can take this exercise as deep as you want, and the more you dig, the more you’ll uncover values. Make sure you’re completely honest and transparent with yourself here. The goal here is not to be critical but to do high-level research on your past self to find information that may help your future self. 

Challenge: Was it the right motivation?

I understand that the word “right” is highly subjective. Evaluating motivation is not a precise science. Saying that two plus two is anything besides four is objectively incorrect. We don’t have a similar lens through which we can view motivation. 

At the same time, we’re not grading a test here. We’re considering what we can learn from your past motivations before determining what can (or should) motivate you in the future. It’s not for me to say whether any motivation is “right” or “wrong,” unless we’re talking about extreme scenarios like hurting children, marginalizing groups of people, or placing toilet paper under the roll. I’m kidding on that last one, but seriously, over is the only way to go. 

Now that we’ve taken off some of the pressure to be “right” (and now that I’ve alienated half of my readers who think I have irrationally strong opinions about toilet paper), how do we know whether a motivation was right or wrong? To me, determining whether or not a motivation is “right” has something to do with the outcome of our actions and something to do with the development we experience. 

When you look back, you begin to see how you could have approached situations with a different type or level of motivation. When I think back on my time in ministry, I wish that I had taken a more critical approach to determine why I was doing things a certain way and why I often felt unfulfilled and dissatisfied. This higher level of awareness would have completely transformed my approach. 

If you can nail this in the future, you’ll not only find more energy and joy from your daily activities but also have a much easier time building motivational momentum. When the output doesn’t match your input, it can feel like you’re running against a brick wall. You feel helpless, out of control, and inadequate for the circumstances you find yourself in. Conversely, if you begin experiencing some small wins and seeing forward progress, you’ll notice a snowball effect that grows and expands your motivation over time. 

Application: How does this impact your future motivation?

By now, you should have a strong pulse on your natural tendencies and your default condition. You have enough evidence to determine how you typically respond to certain cues. You have a better understanding of how you want to be motivated as well as what motivations you want to leave in the past. So what’s next? 

Personally, I don’t find a ton of joy in critically looking back on the past. Sure, I love looking at old vacation pictures and thinking back on important moments in my life, such as my wedding day and the birth of both my children. Thinking about how I could have responded better or differently in the past is typically something that I avoid.

If you’re like me, you’re going to be ecstatic to make the shift from the past to the future. This is where you have all the control. We’ve reached a point where we’re no longer talking about things we can’t change. We’re thinking about what the future could look like based on what we know about ourselves and where we want to grow and develop. 

Because of my past experience in ministry, I’ve learned that I can’t expect anything in return when serving others. Not only does it create a mental disconnect within my own head, but it diminishes the quality of the help I can offer to others. I have to change my definition of success, and this new approach is more motivating to me because I feel a greater sense of control over my response and my interpretation of what’s happening around me.

For you, maybe you’ve been motivated in the past by a desire to please someone else. You dreamed of the day when you would experience their full approval or support. Now that you know this about yourself, you can shift your motivation to living from your own set of values. Instead of creating the life that someone else wants you to live, you’re designing something that will be intrinsically fulfilling to you. 

Maybe you can’t relate to these examples, but you know how it feels to be constantly motivated by accomplishment or achievement. While there’s nothing wrong with accolades, it can damage your self-esteem if you only feel like you’re as good as the trophies on your mantle. As you consider your past motivation and how you want to be motivated in the future, you may begin to realize that a drive to constantly improve, and not a desire for more outward honor or admiration, will serve you better going forward.

In each example, you’re shifting your motivation from something you can’t control to something you can directly impact. You’re defining success in your own terms. Some people may perceive this as less challenging, but I think the opposite is true. It’s not our default condition as human beings, and it will take regular attention to achieve this type of mindset. However, the goal of prolonged motivation (as well as internal peace) makes this a target worth aiming for. 

Motivation and a Growth Mindset 

You’ll forever be challenging past motivations because you’ll never arrive at a point where you’re perfect or infallible. Developing a growth mindset is the only way that you’ll be able to respond to setbacks and challenges. This mindset must reflect a high degree of humility and vulnerability. It’s not self-deprecating, but it’s willing to say that you haven’t fully arrived yet – which, for what it’s worth, doesn’t devalue you in any way. It just means you’re living the human experience like we all are. 

With a growth mindset, you can strategically choose your future motivations rather than allowing them to be chosen for you. Armed with a new perspective, we can begin to paint on the blank canvas that is our future. We can take a fresh look at our lives, considering not only what we want to do but why we want to do it. When there’s full synergy between our goals, our values, and our purpose, we have the perfect environment for motivation to flourish.