How to increase motivation and how to mitigate the overjustification effect.

You can boost your motivation for a task in many ways, but always start by acting first. Even if it is five minutes at a time, as long as you start, it can be a good way of boosting motivation that is already there.

Understanding the difference between the internal motivation factors and external motivation factors is important here because piling on more rewards isn’t always the best way to move forward. (See my What is motivation article for the difference).

Tips to use to increase motivation

Extrinsic motivators (external rewards)

These can be useful in moderation to increase motivation for activities that we don’t like to do.

They can be external (like money or prizes) and even psychological (like praise or fame or accolades).

As for example:

• Trophies for sporting events
• Working for money
• Customer loyalty discounts
• Frequent flyer rewards
• Getting praise from friends or family for helping others
• Working for attention (positive or negative)
• Getting public acclaim or fame
• Avoiding judgment by doing a task
• Studying for grades
• Rewarding yourself (or kids) with shopping or ice cream for doing a task

Finding the right external motivator is the important thing here, and it is recommended to use these only in moderation. Behaviour is complex and different people are motivated by different external factors. Research indicates that it is better for the long term to focus on increasing intrinsic motivation rather than focusing on external motivation.

Intrinsic motivators (internal with little to no outside reward)

1. Challenge yourself: Find ways to increase the challenge you feel toward a boring task, or routine task that needs to be done but that you are not motivated to do.
2. Give yourself (or your children) choices about the tasks that need to get done. Having a perception of control really helps with the motivation to get something done even if it isn’t the most interesting activity.
3. Cooperation and competition: If you are watching or playing sports, focus on the feeling of camaraderie or achievement of a job well done rather than on winning or losing the trophy (that is an extrinsic motivator)
4. Curiosity: Try to find the interesting and the curious in what you are doing and use that to keep going. As an example, if you write articles then try to be curious about the topic you are writing and the motivation to keep going will be easier to get.
5. Recognition: This is a strange one, because recognition of your peers is an example of an external (extrinsic) motivation factor. The recognition mentioned here is to recognize your own worth, accomplishments and success and use that to fuel your motivation.
6. Fantasy: Making a game out of tasks that are more boring or that you don’t want to do is a good way not only to use your creativity but to help you into doing more of what you tend to avoid. It is a good way to use with children as well as they have fun with it. A good tip is to ask them how to turn a task into a game. They will enjoy the exercise and they may end up even liking the task as well.
7. Exercise and eat healthy: A balanced diet and exercise, as well as good sleep hygiene, are all factors that affect your energy levels. The more energy you have, the easier it is to get motivated to do more. The less you do, the less you feel like doing.
8. Use incentives carefully: Be careful how you add extrinsic (external) rewards to increase motivation. If it is something you are already doing out of love, adding an external motivating factor like money, fame, rewards, prizes, accolades, and the like can actually decrease if not kill motivation for the thing you used to love. This has been shown in a few studies. One such study showed that children who loved to play with magic markers stopped playing with them after they received a reward that they expected, whereas those that received a surprised reward, or no reward kept playing with the markers after the rewards were removed. This is called the overjustification effect.

Because as artists and creatives, we usually want to make a living doing something we love it is important to understand this effect and how to mitigate it, the next section involves tips and tricks on how to mitigate this effect. There is hope as evidenced by the many successful artist and creative careers of people out there and they never stop loving what they do. These tips can also be useful for parents who are trying to encourage children to do what they love as well.

How to mitigate the overjustification effect

As mentioned previously, the overjustification effect influences the motivation to do something you love once you add an external motivating factor like fame, money, or awards.

There are three potential causes of the overjustification effect, though these are still under investigation.

1. Lacking in autonomy: As with motivation, if we feel like we don’t have a choice in the matter, we can feel our motivation being drained, we start to procrastinate, and this task becomes a “should do” or “have to do” rather than a “want to do” or a “need to do”. Granted the distinction between “need” and “should” is rather subtle but it is important here.
2. Feeling coerced or bribed: This was an interesting one and one that gave me pause. Why would we feel manipulated into doing something if we would do it for free of for a little? The answer that I found in my readings was that it is part of the self-determination theory (this will be a topic for a future article, but the short of it is that self-determination is the concept that people are motivated to grow and change by three innate and universal needs: autonomy, competence, and connection). This states that people want to do things for their own sake rather than feeling manipulated or coerced into doing them, even if they will gain something by doing whatever it is. Of course, this is dependent on the person’s personality and what motivates them.
3. Feeling a lack of control: If you receive too much of the external type of rewards such as money, fame or praise, people may start to feel that their behaviour and effort are no longer linked to their success, and they will no longer try as hard and are no longer motivated by the act that made them successful in the first place.

For those of us who want to turn a hobby, or something we love into a career, we are more vulnerable to this effect, and can easily lose the motivation. How can we mitigate the overjustification effect? How can we keep doing what we love and get paid for it. Most importantly how do we not lose the love?

Here are a few tips and tricks, which I will be trying myself, for how do the things I love and love the things I do:

1. Focus on the intrinsic: This advice comes up often, as for a lot of things there isn’t just one motivating factor. It is usually never either one or the other, we are on a spectrum of motivation and behaviour is complex. But if motivation becomes low, focusing on the intrinsic, on why we loved it in the first place can help us rekindle that spark and keep us going.
2. Extrinsic in moderation: Some will even advise to avoid the extrinsic motivators altogether, but if you want to make a living doing what you love (and it is possible), avoiding these factors completely would be impossible. Perhaps do what you love, for yourself occasionally. Try to reconnect to it on a personal level when the motivation seems to drop. You can also keep some of your hobbies, just as hobbies (if you have multiple hobbies). I find that by working on short term projects along with a longer-term project, I get a few “quick wins” along the way (that is an intrinsic factor for me; the feeling of accomplishment I get once I finish a project), and I am less likely to abandon the longer-term project.
3. Choices are important and can reduce the effect somewhat because you can focus on a choice that has more personal interest. Give yourself the choice to say “no” as well.
4. Set boundaries: Boundaries are important, especially when you are doing something you love as you can easily eat, breathe, sleep, and get obsessed to the point that you can burn yourself out by your passion. So, give yourself only a set number of hours to work on your passion. Do other hobbies, see other people with different interests and this can boost motivation by opening new horizons and bringing new and fresh perspectives. Don’t underestimate the impact of this on staying motivated. We all need breaks and the permission to be “off” and not always “on”. Burnouts are no fun and I speak from experience there.
5. Learning to collaborate: When working in a creative career it will sometimes be important to collaborate on projects. Learning to let go of some of the creative freedom will be important.
6. Use your meaning, purpose, and strengths to fuel your motivation. Focus on these rather than the rest (fame, wealth, prizes) and motivation should follow.

Finding the motivation to do work we love and keep loving the work we do is a difficult thing, but thankfully it is do-able. There are enough examples out there of people that have done it, that I have hope it can be done.

I hope this article and the ones in the resources section can help you increase you motivation and understand why doing what you love and loving what you do seems so difficult. Now that I started to understand why I kept “losing” my passions every time I tried making a living at them, it may be easier to make a go of this one.

Remember, not everyone is motivated by the same things and as mentioned, motivation is a spectrum. It isn’t all or nothing for either intrinsic or extrinsic factors. So, some of these tips may work, some may not, but the only way to find out is by trying.

Did you try doing what you love and felt your motivation drain away? What did you do? Are you more internally or externally motivated and what do you do to boost your motivation when you feel it starts lowering? Please leave your comments in the answer below.

As always, thank you for reading.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily”

– Zig Ziglar

Resources

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-determination-theory-2795387

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-overjustification-effect-2795386

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/overjustification-effect

https://www.verywellmind.com/doing-what-you-love-the-battle-of-motivation-5222445