Do you enjoy working every day? Or do you notice that there are occasionally moments when motivation is hard to find? Your motivation plays a major role in whether or not you experience happiness at work. The good news: you can influence that.
As a human being you have a need for autonomy, competence and connection: our so-called basic needs. You want to be free to make your own choices, feel connected to others and feel that you are good at certain things. All of those needs must be met before you can grow personally.
You can achieve this growth in two ways. Firstly, this can be done by doing what you find fun and interesting and thus increasing your knowledge and therefore competence. We also call this intrinsic motivation. A second way is to connect with the values and expectations of your environment and make them your own. We call this extrinsic motivation. In both cases you align well with your own values.
With extrinsic motivation, it matters a lot to what extent you have mastered certain values. If you miss autonomy and/ or connectedness, this will not go as well. As a result, you may start doing things because of the consequences, such as punishment or reward. You no longer follow your own values, but those of someone else. Various studies have shown that people will feel less happy as a result.
Intrinsic motivation at work
Do you notice that you feel less happy at work? Then ask yourself to what extent you have room for independent choices, to be good at something and to be connected with others. And to what extent can you do what you find fun and interesting? To what extent are there punishments and rewards? These are all things that affect your happiness at work.
Also good to consider is the fact that extrinsic motivation can weaken your intrinsic motivation. Suppose you do work that you already find fun and interesting and you receive an extra reward for it from now on. This will ultimately cause your motivation to decrease. It no longer feels like you are doing it completely because of your own motivation. In that light, bonuses within companies are not such a good idea at all.
How do you ensure that you get and keep the right motivation? A few tips:
Create autonomy
Create space to make your own decisions and do things your way. You do not necessarily have to have a managerial position for that. You can find space in every job to do this.
Keep developing yourself
Know what you are good at and ensure that you develop yourself further. Feeling good at something is very important for your happiness at work. Make self-reflection and development a priority.
Stay in touch with your colleagues
Feeling connected with your colleagues increases your job satisfaction. That does not mean that you have to hang out with them in a bar every Friday (of course you can), but at least show interest and share what interests you. You will notice that this benefits the collaboration and will create a nicer atmosphere.
Look at the big picture
From time to time, consciously consider why you do what you do. What is it that motivates you in your work? And how does that contribute to what is important to you? Feeling that you are doing useful and meaningful work where the motivation comes mainly from within yourself is very important for your job satisfaction.
Do you want to discover how as an introvert you can make sure that you enjoy going to work? This is a theme that I regularly see with my customers. Feel free to contact me to discuss this without any obligation.
