[powerpress]
Over the course of our childhood and into adulthood, we receive a lot of advice on how to find and do work we love. People tell you to follow your passion, or that you should find work that fits your personality, or that you should just learn what your strengths are and only focus on that. All of this is in fact good advice, but it’s missing perhaps the greatest component…motivation. You have to uncover what it is that pushes you to take action. The best part about finding what motivates you is that you don’t have to know the why….just the what. Once you understand your motivations, you can then move on to see if it aligns with your strengths and personality. But if it doesn’t motivate you, regardless of how good you are at it, you just won’t be fulfilled. So, this week on Smart People Podcast, we are bringing on one of the foremost experts in helping people discover their motivations, Adrian Gostick.
Adrian is a global thought leader on workplace strategy and the author of several successful books on employee engagement. In this episode, we are talking about his recent book titled, What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work. This book offers an extensively tested method to help readers identify their core motivators and figure out the disconnects between their passions and their current work, and guides all those searching for joy and engagement by asking the important questions – “What motivates me?” and “What can I do about it?”
His latest book, The Orange Revolution, was a #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller.”
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“When we realize we have to do something different with our lives, there is a process that we go through – and it can take a long time. But eventually it is going to feel better because we have aligned our work with our motivation.”
– Adrian Gostick
Quotes from Adrian:
[shadowbox]”We are all individual to a greater degree than many experts will admit.”
“People who are motivated by money are often misunderstood. We think they are all about greed and hedonistic behavior. It’s hard to understand those who are motivated by money when you aren’t.”
“We always say that you should try to sculpt first within your job. Most of the people who are the happiest at work have sculpted their jobs over time. They have proven themselves, put in the time, and then they go to their boss and try to modify their job.”
“You can’t just look at your strengths, or your personality, or your motivators to figure out what you want to do. You have to bring all of those areas together.”
“Motivation changes throughout our lives, unlike our personalities.”[/shadowbox]
What we learn in this episode:
- There is more to motivation that Dan Pink’s “Mastery, Purpose, and Autonomy”
- Why are many doctors unhappy and what is it that motivates the majority of them?
- How do you integrate your motivations into your work life?
Resources:
What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work