Motivation and Technique

“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” – Zen Shin

One of my mentors gave me a simple, but effective lens for analyzing effectiveness.

Ask the question, ” Is it motivation or technique?

Motivation is whether you want to do something.  Technique is your method.

When you’re not achieving the results you want, you can ask whether it’s a motivation issue or a problem with the technique.  By knowing the issue, you can improve your results.

Is it the Wrong Technique or a Lack of Motivation?

Here are examples of two ineffective scenarios:

1. You have lots of motivation, but the wrong technique.
2. You have the right technique, but lack motivation.

If you have motivation, but no technique, you end up spinning your wheels.  You waste time doing something that’s ineffective.  Eventually, you’ll run out of steam.

If you know that the technique is the issue, then you can adjust your technique or explore additional techniques.

If you have no motivation, but you have the right technique, your results will be limited.

Knowing and doing are two separate things.

Do You Really Want to Do It?

For example, you might know what to do, but you won’t do it, or you won’t do it well.  You’ll drag your feet or you’ll go through the motions, but your heart won’t be in it.

A simple cutting question is, “Do you want to do it?”.  Sometimes you might surprise yourself.  You might find you actually don’t want to do something, even when you thought you did.

Identify Why You are Stuck So You can Move On

The sooner you know why you’re stuck, you can either switch gears or switch techniques.  You can also use this lens when you’re analyzing the behavior of others … “Do they want to do it?” … “Do they know how?”

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