Week 2: Intrinsic motivators and manifestations
Welcome to Week 2. How are you feeling?
I’m feeling… unmotivated.
That’s not (just) a clever lead-in to an email about motivators—I literally put this off until 8pm, and I send these emails to you first thing Sunday morning.
And even though I didn’t write this out until just about the last minute, here I am. Why, when I could’ve easily sent the email later in the day—or skipped the week altogether—did I finally sit down and write it out?
Because I made a promise to you, and because I made a promise to myself. I set a goal to tool you with the resources, encouragement, and accountability you need to uncover your best self in 10 weeks. Hitting send on this email fulfills my purpose; it’s my intrinsic motivation.
For those of us new to the concept, intrinsic motivation is a fire lit within: you’re motivated to pursue a challenge because you love the process. Compare this to extrinsic motivation—a form of motivation incentivized by… incentives (e.g. money, awards, physical appearance).
Don’t get me wrong; both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation are tremendously valuable. The problem is that so many of us only learn to recognize and honor extrinsic motivators, and when they’re nowhere to be found, we hit a slump… and then that slump turns into negative self-talk… and then that negative self-talk turns into reverted behaviors. Bummer.
Our focus this week is to become aware of our motivators—extrinsic and intrinsic—and build out an SOS plan to enact when we’re feeling disconnected from them. Plus, we’ll explore an exercise to help you quickly discover your core intrinsic motivator… and it’s pretty powerful.
And before we dive in, I’ll leave you with this: the next time someone tells you motivation isn’t always easy to find, you remember it absolutely is—you just have to know where to look.
Bringing awareness to your motivators:
Remember last week’s tracking exercise? We’re going to be using that a lot—starting this week. For those who read that and thought *shit 🥲*, have no fear… you can still move ahead to this week, but note that what you learn won’t be as well-informed.
Nonetheless, we proceed!
This week, we’re tapping into our motivation (or lack thereof). If you completed your tracking exercise, look back at your data to find the answers to the prompts below; if you did not complete the tracking exercise, use your best judgement…
For the purpose of this exercise, we’re going to link strong motivation to average or elevated moods (3-5 on our scale) and average or high productivity (2-3 on our scale). We’ll link weak motivation to low moods (1-2 on our scale) and low productivity (1 on our scale).
Answer the following for days you had strong motivation:
Can you identify any trends in the day’s highs and lows? What are they?
Can you identify any trends in activity level? What are they?
Can you identify any trends in fueling (water and food intake)? What are they?
Now, answer them for days you had weak motivation:
Can you identify any trends in the day’s highs and lows? What are they?
Can you identify any trends in activity level? What are they?
Can you identify any trends in fueling (water and food intake)? What are they?
With the information you have, craft a ~*story*~ about your highly motivated day. This might feel silly, but I’m serious—write this out as an actual story, like…
Sydney wakes up at 4:40am, fully rested, and drinks a tall glass of water before heading to the gym. After crushing a heavy lift session, she heads back home to brew a delicious cup of medium roast coffee to the tune of her favorite podcast, MindPump. After a quick, extra hot shower, she sits with a bowl of overnight oats—which are perfectly thick and creamy—and enjoys them while catching up on emails and reviewing her calendar for the day ahead…
To clarify: this might feel like you’re writing out your perfect day (and it very well may be), but it’s simply a structure of consistencies around elevated moods, high productivity, and general presence of motivation.
It’s a recipe for daily success; and like any recipe, sometimes you don’t have everything you need—but that’s ok! This is where we can get creative. Sub out things that may not be available to you at that time for ingredients that impact you similarly.
Now we have our daily ritual for peak motivation, but… that’s not always going to cut it. Enter: Exercise #2, Meeting your Best Self.
Meeting our best selves in Week 2?! Already??
Yep! We don’t have everything we need in our arsenal just yet, but you better believe we can visualize our best self. Honestly, you’ve probably been thinking about them this entire time—from subscribing to these emails to right now, you’ve known who the best You is.
We know that intrinsic motivation (loving the process) is incredibly powerful, and it’s not because there’s a reward at the end of the journey (a subjectively perfect body, your dream home, a million dollars…) it’s because you love the way accomplishing something makes you feel.
But sometimes, visualizing an end-goal isn’t a deep enough exercise to associate the feeling of accomplishment. If we’re feeling detached from the feeling of being our best selves, deriving motivation from it will be especially tricky…
So here’s what we’re going to do: Repeat your story exercise, but this time, write out a full day for your best self. I want you to get as specific and detailed as possible: what time do you wake up? What’s the first thing you do in the morning? How do you take your coffee? Where do you go to work (or do you go to work?)...
This story is completely yours to craft; and while I personally love Google Docs (I made a template for you here!*), I urge you to pull out a good ol’ pen and paper instead.
*Template for subscribers only.
After you’ve written it out, study it hard, because this week… you’re living it.
That’s right, at least one day this week, you’re going to fully cosplay as your best self.
Sure, I might not be able to slip on my designer robe to head out for croissants and espresso in Paris before my chauffeur escorts me to the front row at Fashion Week, but I can most definitely put on my best outfit, head to the fanciest bakery in town for that croissant and espresso, and call an Uber (or Steve, lol) to take me to The Met’s latest fashion exhibit.
Our goal is to completely live in the mindset of our best self; to familiarize ourselves with how it feels to be there, to be that person. And by doing this, when we feel demotivated and detached, we can call on those feelings to give us a little push—plus, it’s going to be a pretty fucking great day to experience.
And if all else fails, sometimes you may just be motivated to sit on the couch and give yourself a break.
If you’re reading this right now, it’s likely that you’re already a highly motivated person, so much so that you may be “motivating” yourself into the ground.
We’re learning to honor our bodies, so if you can’t tap into your motivators and get shit done, give your best self permission to take the damn day off!