Motivation \ mō-te-vā-shun \ Reason to Act

Back in cave-man days, motivation consisted of carrying a big club and making loud noises. Today, we refer to that as FEAR motivation.

As Humans became more sophisticated, they discovered that fear motivation didn't work well because those affected toughened up to fear.

So we discovered a new way to motivate. To get a donkey to pull a card, we held out a carrot on a long stick, and the donkey, trying to get to the carrot, pulled the cart. We named this INCENTIVE motivation. But, that didn't work for very long either, because the donkey tired and just sat down.

We keep trying to usde one of these two kinds of motivation on employees today. We either threaten them, which eventually causes strikes (or they quit), or we incentive them which raises the cost of doing business to the point that we are no longer competetive.

So, what can we do? Since the two most popular types of motivation may work for short periods of time, neither will work for very long. It is obvious that we need to find a new kind of motivation that is more permanent.

It's called ATTITUDE motivation. In an earlier blog, we discussed attitudes and their relationship to results. Here it is again... If you think you can do something, you are right. On the other hand, if you think you cannot, you are also right.

Focus on the right kind of thinking, and you can become SELF-MOTIVATED. If your attitude, or habit of thaught is positive, so are the results!