WHERE IS THE MOTIVATION?

Why do people chose to do something?

This is an interesting question that pops up, very often lately.

Monday, for example, I was cleaning a tiled floor on my knees, and I really asked myself:”why on earth am I doing this?”

My back was aching, and my arms were tired of carrying my weight on a very cold floor. Neither the floor, nor the dirt were mine. And it's not to be expected that I will spend much time using this kitchen floor as a part of my household. So, all of the sudden, cleaning the final eight tiles, I was really looking from a distance to myself.

I felt that I was missing something. My energy levels had dropped, and my motivation for the task had vanished. I didn't have much fun doing it any more. So really, all the signs were there. There was definitely something missing and I wondered what it could be.

I stopped cleaning after finishing the floor tiles. During the lunch break, I  expressed my wish out loud:” I would like to find out what I am missing here.” I talked about it with Richard and also said to him that every suggestion that I could think of what was missing was not hitting bull's-eye.

It was during a five-minute siesta, that the real answer became clear.

I was aware suddenly, that part of my motivation to volunteer for helping him with cleaning his house to let it out, was the opportunity to talk meanwhile, about our plans for the future. But for practical cleaning reasons, we had been working in different rooms in the house for a few hours already, and therefore, that specific aspect of my motivation was not present.

In the exact same minute that I acknowledged to myself that this was the core of my motivation problem, my energy levels went back up again. I expressed to Richard my desire to find some time in the next couple of days to talk about our plans. After finding out that this desire, is a mutual desire, my motivation to help out with sorting the house out, was all fired up again.

Amazing how that works!