What Keeps You Going? Finding Motivation, Engagement and Flow

‘Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.’                                                                                                                           Thomas A. Edison (inventor)

As mentioned in last week's post, our happiness at work depends to a large degree on having the right motivation. Our motivation has not only an impact onto our productivity and efficiency at work, but it also has an influence on our persistence and willingness to continue to work in more difficult circumstances, when we have to deal with failures, defeats or rejections.

The two types of motivation

Before we get into more detail on how to become more motivated, we will just need to briefly look at the two types of motivation:^1-3

• With extrinsic motivation we are performing an activity because we are expecting an external reward. Common external rewards are praise, attention or admiration by other people, and of course money.
• With intrinsic motivation we are pursuing an activity because we have a passion for it and experience it as pleasurable; the activity gives us a sense of meaning, and/or we care about the end result.

The advantages of intrinsic motivation

Of course we all rely on money to survive and we also need positive interactions with other people, so to a degree we are all working for extrinsic rewards. However, this is only true to a certain threshold level. Beyond this, it is important to retain as much intrinsic motivation as possible, as it has several advantages over extrinsic motivation:

• Independence from external factors: If we are pursuing an activity for its own sake, we are of course less dependent on the external conditions. This is a great advantage; in previous posts, we have come across hedonic adaptation, which is the phenomenon that we humans adapt relatively quickly to positive as well as negative conditions (see also Can Money Buy Happiness?). This means that we can easily get used to the money we earn or the positive feedback from others, so that we may need more and more of it over time in order to keep us motivated.^1,2,4 If, on the other hand, we are genuinely interested in our work, experience it as meaningful and we enjoy our work-related activities, then we have an automatic inner rewarding system, which gives our well-being more independence.^4,6
• It energises us: When we do something we love and we have a generic interest in, it gives us mental energy.²
• It makes us think more creatively.³
• It tends to make us more successful and productive in the long run.³
• Intrinsic motivation fosters greater mental and physical well-being.^1-3

Although people show different tendencies regarding their behaviour (i.e. some of us are more intrinsically motivated, others more extrinsically motivated), it is important to bear in mind that motivational behaviour is learned and not fixed. In other words, cultivating certain attitudes and mindsets can make us shift towards the more rewarding intrinsic motivation.³

The problems with external rewards

The traditional view in business and education has been that people need to get motivated by positive and negative incentives (‘carrots and sticks’), in other words that we need to rely on extrinsic motivation when trying to achieve results. To a certain point this is correct, as we all have to earn a living and want to be paid fairly. However, it has been shown that under certain circumstances, ‘carrots and sticks’ can be completely counterproductive. Whether or not external incentives work depends on the type of task or work we are performing:³

• Algorithmic tasks are basic actions, which follow established instructions where the solution can only be reached over one certain path. The classic example is work on a production line in a factory or other simple manual work. However, over the last century there has been a huge shift with many algorithmic tasks now performed by machines or computers. Therefore, most of us have to complete more complex, so-called heuristic tasks at work. For these, there is no single script or routine solution path and we have to rely more on creativity, experimentation and open thinking in order to succeed.  
• While ‘carrots and sticks’ can increase productivity for algorithmic tasks, this is not fully true for heuristic tasks. Here, external rewards (especially money) can boost the motivation in the short-term, but they can have several detrimental effects in the long run including:
• Decreasing our intrinsic motivation (because an interesting task may be turned into a drudge), reducing our performance and creativity
• They can encourage cheating, shortcuts and unethical behaviour, particularly if we have not set the goals ourselves (e.g. if we are given certain sales targets)
• They can become addictive
• They can make us adopt short-term thinking

How can we increase our intrinsic motivation?

So if external incentives are not the solution, how can we ensure that we stay motivated? A lot of research has gone into this question over the last decades, and scientific studies show that intrinsic motivation depends on three key elements: autonomy, mastery and purpose.³

Autonomy

In order to have a sense of autonomy, we need to have some influence over four different aspects:³ What we do (the task), when we do it (the time), who we do it with (the team), how do we do it (the technique). Naturally not all job roles allow us full autonomy in all above areas. However, our motivation is likely to grow if we are allowed and seek a greater degree of autonomy.

Mastery and flow

Having a mastery experience is a huge contributor to intrinsic motivation. Mastery essentially means that we become good at doing something, which matters to us. Mastery also increases our sense of self-efficacy and confidence through experiencing success.⁸

Applying our skills makes us feel good, provided that there is the right match between our skills and the task; too little challenge causes boredom, but too much challenge is a common cause for anxiety and stress.⁴ Having the right match between your skills (and energy) and tasks at hand allows you to enter the state of flow, which is a pleasurable feeling and highly associated with well-being.^3,4,6,7 When we experience flow, we become so deeply absorbed in an activity that we lose the sense of time and self-consciousness. We feel ‘in the zone’. We particularly enjoy an activity (and experience flow) if both, the skills and challenge, are high. So in order to fuel our motivation, we should aim to enter the state of flow as often as possible. This means that we are aware of our skills and deliberately engage in appropriate challenges.  

In order to pursue mastery successfully, we need to believe that we are able to continuously improve our skills, but without falling into the trap of perfectionism. We also need to accept that it takes effort, deliberate practice and persistence to improve our skills.³

Purpose

As previously discussed in What Do You Live For- About Finding Meaning, we humans inherently strive for purpose, and the sense to serve or be part of something bigger than we are.^1,4,6,7 Importantly, we all have to figure out ourselves what gives us meaning. What may be a deeply meaningful activity for one person may be a completely lost cause to another. Deliberately looking for meaning in our work and identifying aspects, which resonate with our values not only promotes well-being but also intrinsic motivation.³

So increasing our sense of autonomy, mastery/flow and purpose will also raise our intrinsic motivation. Another aspect is that we should ideally set our own goals and that these should be largely compatible with those of the business we work for.³

Mind your motivation when dealing with colleagues

Having a general healthy sense of control is an important factor for well-being.^4-6 However, this sense of control arises indirectly when we experience success, such as mastery experience (see below).^3,6 Conversely, gaining power and control as a primary goal or motivation has been shown to be unhelpful, particularly in interpersonal relationships.⁵

As a highly social creatures, our well-being largely depends on good relationships with other people, whether these are family and friends or work colleagues.^1,2,4-7 However, in some people an intense need for power and control in relationships can outweigh their need for close and mutual affiliation. These people are characterized by an aggressive, self-centered, argumentative or overly competitive behaviour in order to increase personal status and prestige.⁵ People with such characteristics (also called stressed power motivation) do not only get very stressed and frustrated in challenging situations where they see their sense of power under threat, but this personality trait has also been associated with poorer physical health.

On the other hand, there is the motivational pattern of unstressed affiliation motivation. People who show this type of motivation in interpersonal relationships readily connect to others and want to be friendly and liked, not for the reason that they want to increase their status or influence but because they are genuinely interested in mutual relationships. Because these people do not experience challenging situations as a threat to their power or control, the unstressed affiliation motivation is associated with a higher stress hardiness/resilience.⁵

Having a sense of trust in others is essential for unstressed affiliation motivation, and it as been shown to be an important contributing factor to mental well-being as well as physical health.^5,7 So being aware of our motivation when dealing with other people and increasing our sense of trust can not only help us to become more resilient to stress but it may also make us happier and healthier. Trusting affiliation may be cultivated e.g. through mindfulness practices, by experiencing positive emotions and by deliberately forming and deepening relationships with other people.^5,7,9

More on the topic:

 

Author Dan Pink has looked into the scientific evidence on the topic of motivation, and presents it the highly interesting book Drive- The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

Alternatively, you can have a look at the TED talk by Dan Pink about the same topic here: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.

Preview: Next week’s post is going to be all around the issue of time- our perception of time, time pressure and self-organisation for effective time management.

References and further reading:

1. Lyubomirsky S. The Myths of Happiness: What should make you happy but doesn’t, what shouldn’t make you happy but does. Penguin Books; New York. 2013.

2. Seppälä E. The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success. Piatkus; London, UK. 2016.­­

3. Pink DH. Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us. Canongate Books; Edinburgh, UK. 2009.

4. Diener E, Biswas-Diener R. Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. Blackwell Publishing; Oxford, UK. 2008.

5. Kabat-Zinn J: Full Catastrophe Living: How To Cope With Stress, Pain and Illness Using Mindfulness Meditation. Piatkus. 2013.

6. Seligman MEP. Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being- and How to Achieve Them. Nicholas Brealey Publishing; London, UK. 2011.

7. Fredrickson B. Positivity: Groundbreaking Research to Release Your Inner Optimist and Thrive. Oneworld Publications; Oxford, England. 2010.

8. Wiens KJ. Leading Through Burnout: The Influence Of Emotional Intelligence On The Ability Of Executive Level Physician Leaders To Cope With Occupational Stress And Burnout [Dissertation]. University of Pennsylvania. 2016.

9. Graham L. Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being. New World Library; Novato. 2013.

If you found this information helpful, please consider supporting the campaign under Just Giving. Of course it is also great if you choose to support another charity or do a practical good deed, but it would be nice if you could let me know that you have done this because you felt inspired by this campaign. Please also feel free to share this post and let me know if you have any constructive feedback- good or bad!

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Happiness At Work

‘Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.'

                                                                                                    Confucius

Many of us spend more waking hours at work than at home, and so I thought that it is important to include some posts about happiness at work and some related topics.

We have of course already looked into the way that accomplishments contribute to our well-being in Aiming High: Accomplishments and Goals and we looked into the difficult side of work in Don't Burn Out: Resilience At Work, which you may also wish to review if you have a specific interest in occupational well-being. This week’s post is complementing these previous ones, looking at some additional factors positively influencing our work lives. As we spend so many hours at work anyway, we may as well make the most of it!

The benefits of happiness at work

There are many arguments for feeling good at work: It makes us more effective when making decisions, and we tend to become more creative and have a better general work performance. We also change our jobs less frequently. Happy workers also tend to go over and beyond their formal duties and often have a general positive effect on their colleagues and the business as a whole, elevating general work moral and efficiency. And people who are happy at work also tend to earn more money (although they are often not primarily motivated by money, as you will find out below).¹

As discussed in last week’s post, optimism is highly associated with a high level of well-being, and there is evidence that an optimistic attitude makes us more successful in stressful jobs with frequent setbacks.² Finally, an open and optimistic attitude has also been identified as a factor protecting us from burnout.³

Work and well-being

Happiness at work is complex and could fill an entire blog on its own. One common mistake we can make is to think that our work achievements are going to bring us lasting happiness. Depending on our type of personality, it may be easy to immerse ourselves in high-pressure jobs and get ‘hooked’ on goal attainment while neglecting other aspects of our lives.⁴ Although accomplishments are an important component to well-being and a fulfilled life, they are just that: a component.⁵ Only the minority of us genuinely thrive on long working hours, and it has been shown that an adequate work-life balance is essential for a successful and productive long-term career.^3,4

Apart from accomplishments, what else does our well-being at work depend on? There are many other different factors, including our specific profession or job role, our colleagues, the general work conditions and organisational structure, as well as the more peripheral factors, such as the length and type of our commute to work.¹

And there is one other crucial factor: It has been shown that people who are happy, positive and optimistic in their private lives are also usually happier at work.¹ As we have learned throughout the blog, our lifestyle, mindsets and attitudes have a great impact on our general wellbeing, And so it turns out that we can – at least to a large degree – influence our happiness at work, too.^1-6

This means that most of the posts throughout this year also apply to our occupational well-being. However, the very basics of having sufficient sleep/rest, adequate nutrition and exercise have been shown to be particularly important to stay productive and happy at work.⁴ Some additional more specific facts and tips are listed below.

Type of work-related attitude¹

Our attitude to work has a great impact on well-being and can be generally divided into three types:

• Job orientation: People who are job-orientated simply see their work as a way, which enables them to pay their bills. They may work hard for monetary incentives but leisure time remains most important to them, and they look forward to the end of each working day. Job-orientated people will generally just follow what they are told rather than bringing in a lot of initiative into their work.
• Career orientation: Career-orientated people are ambitious and see their work as a path to gain additional values. This is not necessarily just an increasing amount of money but may also be respect or status. They may enjoy work, although they still tend to think about leisure time and holiday a lot. Career-orientated people may take initiative in their work, but this is often to impress supervisors rather than for intrinsic motives.
• Calling orientation: People with calling orientation are generally passionate about their work. They see it as an opportunity to develop their talents and feel that they make an important contribution to other people or the world in general. They work hard because they find their work intrinsically rewarding, and tend to think about job-related things even outside formal working hours. And it is probably not surprising that these types of people tend to be happiest workers. This does not necessarily mean that they are workaholics and that they cannot have a good work-life balance, it just means that they love their work and genuinely like spending time there.

What is important to point out is that the categories do not necessarily depend on the type of job you have. For example, in any given occupation approximately 1/3rd of the people are calling orientated- not only teachers or doctors, but also bus drivers, hospital administrators or financial administrators.

The big difference between calling-orientated people and the other two categories is that they tend to develop their job further and go beyond and above the call of duty: they take on additional tasks, think about more efficient ways of doing things, help their colleagues and take initiative to make changes around their work-place to make it a more pleasant place for themselves and others.

So adopting a calling orientation can help us to enhance our well-being at work, and that of our colleagues. The following points may help with trying to become more calling orientated.

Personality and personal strengths

Having a job, which fits your inherent personality traits and strengths can certainly be a key factor in long-term job satisfaction.  For example, if you are extraverted and sociable, you are likely to get on well in a job where you frequently have contact with lots of different people. Our personalities and attitudes can also make us more vulnerable to stress, particularly if we have perfectionistic and pessimistic tendencies, which can make work in high-pressure and ‘high-defeat’ jobs more difficult.^2,4

Another factor to consider are our signature strengths. These are individual characteristics, which resonate with our values and which give us a sense of meaning. Character strengths include for example Fairness, Empathy, Leadership or Belief/Spirituality. As you may know from personal experience, working at a place which is not corresponding to your values, or where you may even even be forced to do something contrary to your values can be highly demoralizing.

Conversely, we can increase our well-being at work by consciously and regularly applying our signature strengths.^1,6,7 So gaining some clarity about the strengths and values that we have, and how they relate to those of our employer and/or our customers is an important step towards a fulfilled work life. You can do a free signature strengths test at https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu or https://www.viacharacter.org (both free but registration required).

Motivation and engagement

Closely associated with the work-related attitude and values is the question of motivation and engagement- this is what keeps us going. As these aspects are not only very important but also slightly more complex, they will be discussed in more detail in next week’s post. But briefly, following factors can contribute to a higher level of motivation and engagement at work:

• Intrinsic motivation: This means that we find our activity directly rewarding, meaningful and/or pleasurable, rather than relying on external rewards such as money or approval by other people.^4,6,8
• Having a sense of autonomy.⁸
• Experiencing mastery and flow: Mastering a task and increasing our skills gives us a sense of increased control over our environment. If we have the right match between our skill and the task, we experience flow. Experiencing flow means being so deeply absorbed in an activity that we lose the sense of time and self-consciousness. Both mastery and flow make us feel good and directly contribute to our well-being.^4,8

So by trying to actively savour moments at work, which we experience as rewarding and meaningful, by seeking autonomy wherever possible and by cultivating mastery, as well as accepting and seeking appropriate challenges, we can increase our well-being- more on this will follow next week.

Keep connected

Our general well-being stands and falls with the relationships to other people. And so building good relationships to our work colleagues is an essential component to happiness at work. However, it has been traditionally often suggested it is very important to safeguard our self-interest and that selfish behaviour may be the key to professional success.¹ Contrary to this, recent scientific research has shown that selfish and self-focused attitudes and behaviours makes people actually often less successful in the long run. The reasons for this are multifold but include that the best results are usually achieved by positive team dynamics, which foster a supportive and creative environment.^4,7 Additionally, positive and trusting relationships to other people (rather than interactions characterised by resentment, competition or suspicion) are good for our health.^4,5,7

You can foster positive relationships at work for example by performing small acts of kindness (doing a little favour for a co-worker or giving somebody a heart felt compliment), showing gratitude and thanking somebody if they have helped you, by not participating in (negative) gossip, having a compassionate and respectful attitude and by being generally mindful when communicating with others. Of course you may find it easier to connect with some colleagues than others, but it may be helpful decrease the frequency for negative work interactions. You may find some tips and hints for this in the posts No Need To Shout: Dealing With Difficult People 1 and No Need To Should: Dealing With Difficult People 2.

What can employers do?¹

Good employers strive to improve the well-being of their employees, not only to optimize productivity, but also to reduce staff turnover, which tends to be very costly. Businesses which are able to inspire their employees and make them enthusiastic about their work not only end up with happier employees, but they also tend to become more successful. This is primarily achieved by recognizing the strengths of individual workers, and allowing the employees to express these strengths.

Of course there is no one-fits-all ideal of an organization, as it very much depends on the field of work, and type of workplace. However, following organisational factors for high employee well-being have been identified:

• Providing opportunities for personal control: This is because we feel best if our work allows us to have some discretion over how to deal with problems, how to apply our skills best and if we have some input on outcomes.
• Allowing for a variety of tasks: As having a largely repetitive job with little variety can clearly be very boring and unsatisfying, allowing employees a greater degree of variety increases well-being.
• Supportive supervisors: Supervisors can make a big difference to employee well-being. Specifically supervisory who are approachable, who show an active interest in the well-being and development of their workers, and who provide regular feedback contribute to happiness at work. While regular positive feedback is most important, giving employees an idea on areas they may improve in is also helpful, as it provides the employee with orientation.
• Respect and status: Working in a highly respected position can increase our self-esteem. But it is not only about the jobs at the top. The best organisations are the ones, which treat all employees, including the lower status staff, with respect and which recognize the contribution each individual co-worker brings to the company.
• Fair (but not necessarily the best) pay and non-monetary benefits: Of course it is important that we are able to live a decent life on the money that we earn from our job- something more and more people are finding to be a challenge nowadays. So fair wages and salaries are a very important contributor to life satisfaction. However, as explained above, some people are less motivated by money than others. Once a certain minimum requirement is covered, some people find the benefits of a challenging and meaningful work, and a supportive team of colleagues more important than the financial compensation alone.
• Clear requirements and guidelines how to meet them: Businesses and organisations experienced as ‘good’ by their workforce are ones, which have clear policies and guidelines. These include job descriptions, adequate training and simple performance targets. Clear instructions on what is expected of us and how to achieve it are an important contributor to well-being at work, as this gives us easy-to-understand goals and targets. On the contrary, very loose structures and unclear targets are counterproductive as they tend to increase anxiety and insecurity of employees and decrease performance.

In summary, if we understand what is asked of us, we are aware of the special skills that we bring to the job, if we get positive feedback and experience our job as meaningful, receive social support from co-workers and have all the tools available to perform at our best, we are more likely to be satisfied and happy at work. If we merely look for the best salary but ignore our interests, skills and values, it is unlikely that we experience job satisfaction in the long run. If we want to improve our happiness at work, we should try to adopt a calling-orientation and commit to giving the very best to our job. Thinking about our work as something we enjoy doing rather than obligation may be very helpful.

Preview: As promised, next week is going to be all about how to increase our motivation, engagement and how to find flow.

References and further reading:

1. Diener E, Biswas-Diener R. Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth. Blackwell Publishing; Oxford, UK. 2008.

2. Seligman MEP. Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. Vintage Books; New York. 2006.

3. Wiens KJ. Leading Through Burnout: The Influence Of Emotional Intelligence On The Ability Of Executive Level Physician Leaders To Cope With Occupational Stress And Burnout [Dissertation]. University of Pennsylvania. 2016.

4. Seppälä E. The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success. Piatkus; London, UK. 2016.­­

5. Seligman MEP. Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being- and How to Achieve Them. Nicholas Brealey Publishing; London, UK. 2011.

6. Lyubomirsky S. The Myths of Happiness: What should make you happy but doesn’t, what shouldn’t make you happy but does. Penguin Books; New York. 2013.

7. Fredrickson B. Positivity: Groundbreaking Research to Release Your Inner Optimist and Thrive. Oneworld Publications; Oxford, England. 2010.

8. Pink DH. Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us. Canongate Books; Edinburgh, UK. 2009.

If you found this information helpful, please consider supporting the campaign under Just Giving. Of course it is also great if you choose to support another charity or do a practical good deed, but it would be nice if you could let me know that you have done this because you felt inspired by this campaign. Please also feel free to share this post and let me know if you have any constructive feedback- good or bad!

View and Save as PDF

Follow the Blog- http://followthegoodlifecampaign.blogspot.co.uk

Donations- https://www.justgiving.com/teams/thegoodlifecampaign

Donations are in aid of the International Rescue Committee and the World Veterinary Service