Motivating Others: How Do I Get 'Someone Else' to Feel Motivated?

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

Motivation?

When it comes to motivating others what are you really doing?

This question has come up a lot in the work-at-home weirdness of the last year.

Motivating myself and motivating others—how do I rally enthusiasm and outputs?

A recent online group I led was a great reminder about what’s really going on here. The group was there for a purpose (the purpose wasn’t to talk about motivation!), we had a task, an agenda and a flow.

What was interesting though, at the end of the session, was that most of the people in the zoom room said they were feeling positive and much more inspired about the work they were doing and the projects they themselves were leading.

Interesting that, isn’t it?

We hadn’t focused on ‘motivation’ and yet it had shown up anyway?

What’s the ‘How-To’?

It’s pretty clear to me that there is nothing to do when it comes to motivating others.

Lack of motivation is a feeling that can arise from an overly busy mind, a mind that is thinking about everything that is not being done, rather than putting attention on the doing of something, or thinking about something constructive.

This group of thoughtful people in a (zoom) room together were no different to the people you are surrounded by, colleagues, team members, even recalcitrant teenagers.

When we fall back into remembering what is inspiring to us, when we allow our focus to be in the direction of what we want to do and what we are enthused by, then ‘motivation’ is simply a word that describes a more positive state of mind.

Do Nothing?

It looks as if there is nothing to do, but it’s a very subtle, almost imperceptible shift in attention away from the ‘thing’, the uncomfortable nagging feeling that we need to do something, and towards something else.

The ‘doing’ becomes invisible, other than remembering that it’s a default state when we turn our attention away from the mental chatter—chatter that can amplify when we feed it with our attention!

Now, I’m not saying that happens in all groups and all zoom rooms, because people can put a lot of barriers in the way, unintentionally and completely innocently, but it happens more often than you might think. And a ‘return to default’ is the easiest work of all—there literally is, nothing to do other than to cultivate a state of connection.

When you see that, suddenly work becomes a lot easier, a lot more enjoyable, and a lot more productive.

With love,

Cathy