Types of Motivation Used to Achieve Goals

Each of us wants to change something in our life, whether it is old habits, way of thinking, values, environment, relationships, or a job. Even having great experience in the IT field, one needs a powerful mental shift for encouragement to move upward and hire a tech resume writer to propel their career forward.

This article reveals several sources of motivation that can get turned into the driving force for getting things done and how to intrigue someone. Let’s try to understand the four motivations and use them in persuasive methods or find our own ad-hoc source to connect.

The 4 Types of Motivation

Researchers distinguish several motivation types, which drive us through the hard times, make us highly engaged and performing, and maintain focus on achievements. Influenced by the power of human endeavor, personal expectations, and the ultimate outcome, motivation has an external or internal source, being predicated by action or non-action. These are four important categories to draw a line between:

1. Extrinsic motivation (external source + action);
2. Intrinsic motivation (internal source + action);
3. Introjected motivation (internal source + non-action);
4. Identified motivation (external source + non-action);.

1. Extrinsic Motivation

Driven by external rewards behavior is related to extrinsic motivation. External rewards include tangible bounties, such as prizes, money, promotions, or good grades, as well as intangible ones, such as praise, or fame. We can detect the traces of an external influence that shifts demeanor in many real-world situations. For instance, extrinsic motivation is a prize from a teacher to a student for winning a debate, shopping with a store loyalty card to gain points, or personal rewarding yourself with new clothing for losing weight resulted from sticking to a diet.

The fragility of extrinsic motivation stems from predictability and the proneness to expectation. The reward for acting in a specific way applied on an ongoing basis appears to be part of the effort, not a bounty and lacks meaningfulness. Reward motivation is inconsistent and often weakens as time goes by. Let’s take, for example, compensation and bonuses for doing specific jobs. For some time the bounties work, making employees engaged and their performance efficient. But in a year or two, motivation decreases, making human resources search for new stimuli for a team’s engagement and productivity.

2. Intrinsic Motivation

If actions align with values or pleasant feelings for completing a task that falls under the intrinsic motivation category. Though it has subjective nature, this category can be reached in many ways, including the special titles reflecting value such as “employee of the year” or giving out an incentive like a coffee mug printed with “best manager.”

Internalized motivation related to personal values or desires is much helpful to recognize outstanding employees and charge up workers to excel. To understand why it is so, you should consider the relation. Inherent satisfaction is valued higher than some separable consequence. That means that some of us place a higher value on recognition of our performance from our boss than being rewarded with a bonus at the end of the year.

3. Introjected Motivation

Introjected motivation is internalized in the same way as intrinsic one, but the main distinction is the pressing voice of guilt, resulted from poor performance. Feelings of guilt, worry, or shame are powerful stimuli for the person’s motivation, that are similar to negative reinforcement, but the individual enacts a behavior inspired by fear to fail to comply with the obligations. The best example is a person who doesn’t enjoy Sunday services but regularly attends church in order not to be punished in the afterlife.

 

Such type of motivation is common and is intended to raise fear, inducing feelings of guilt.  For instance, negative comments from the boss about the poor quality of the job are aimed at motivation to perform better, reproaches from the parents make you act in a specific way. Avoid introjected motivation if at all possible, as it fosters anxiety, anger, and confusion. Those who endure manipulative behavior, passive-aggressive attitudes, or bullying may form introjected motivations, but never feel positive or confident about their actions.

4. Identified Motivation

Identified motivation is where a person knows or feels that something needs doing, accepts it as a personal regulation but has not yet decided to do anything about it. Motivation identified with the importance of behavior is a powerful form that prepares the person to act without finding enjoyment, immediate reward, guilt, shame, or punishment. For example, lung cancer’s risk motivates a person to quit smoking, but it isn’t easy as the need and desire to quit smoking takes definite time to actualize.

Actualizing the goals creates lasting accomplishment or performance enhancement and offers a reliable way to access motivation for personal or environmental improvement. The power of identified motivation that makes people recognize the benefits of certain behavior for  development, desires, or well-being is undeniable. The weak point of this kind of motivation is time, as waiting for someone’s adoption of a specific behavior may be commercially unfeasible for companies.

During a single day, our motivation ebbs or flows, making us unable to cope with challenges or ready to find opportunities. The problem is that motivation has many faces and doesn’t depend on a single factor. Knowing all types of motivation and applying some of them is important either for the individual or companies, seeking higher performance or goal achievement.