What science teaches us about motivation

Nolan felt draggy. He’d lost his mojo. He was dreading the projects on his plate, even though they were projects he would have loved once-upon-a-time. He’d been at this freelance game for over a decade and he felt like things were stale and uninspired.

He was in one of those “not terrible but not great” situations. He was hitting his income goals and doing work for arguably impressive clients. But he was finding it harder and harder to work at a fast clip. His work had started to creep into the evenings, and then the weekends. He came to me because he was working a little bit, all the time. And he was completely uninspired by all of it.

I’ve been there. You’ve been there. We’ve all been there. This is the reason why big tech companies move people through jobs every year or so. Novelty can add motivation and freshness to your workload. But when you work for yourself, you often need to create that novelty all on your own.

Motivation propels us through our days. Motivation is defined as a reason for behaving a certain way. It’s a general desire — a willingness — to take action. In my coaching practice and my life, I’ve learned that action and motivation have a bit of a chicken-and-egg relationship. Action can help you find motivation. But motivation is necessary to sustain action. You need both, and they feed off of each other…