Quotes About Motivation

When I've gone back to work, it's always with that sense of inevitability. That may be a complete delusion, but it's the one that I need to get out of bed and go about my business. That sense that I can't avoid this thing. I better just get on with it.

Having clearly defined values, purpose, and goals are essential to a strong foundation for happiness.

In three decades of working with patients, I have found that when you tell your brain what you want, your brain will help you make it happen.

When the Parent Dragons are triggered, you feel like you've done something wrong, you are not good enough or supported, and you are motivated to work harder.

The brain stem and cerebellum play a critical role in happiness, as they are also involved in processing speed and producing some of the chemicals, such as dopamine and serotonin, that are involved in mood, motivation, and learning

Clearly, your behavior matters beyond yourself and is an important reason to get healthy now.

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.12 Feeling

Research suggests that people are typically unaware of the reasons why they are doing what they are doing, but when asked for a reason, they readily supply one.

Leadership is not domination, but the art of persuading people to work toward a common goal.

Make no little plans they have no magic to stir men's blood...Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.

Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity.

Being a professional," Julius Erving once said, "is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don't feel like doing them.

The science shows that the secret to high performance isn't our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive—our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to make a contribution.

People use rewards expecting to gain the benefit of increasing another person's motivation and behavior, but in so doing, they often incur the unintentional and hidden cost of undermining that person's intrinsic motivation toward the activity.

Motivation 1.0 presumed that humans were biological creatures, struggling to obtain our basic needs for food, security and sex. Motivation 2.0 presumed that humans also responded to rewards and punishments. That worked fine for routine tasks but incompatible with how we organize what we do, how we think about what we do, and how we do what we do. We need an upgrade. Motivation 3.0, the upgrade we now need, presumes that humans also have a drive to learn, to create, and to better the world.

if-then" rewards usually do more harm than good. By neglecting the ingredients of genuine motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—they limit what each of us can achieve.

Rewards do not undermine people's intrinsic motivation for dull tasks because there is little or no intrinsic motivation to be undermined.

Goals may cause systematic problems for organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased intrinsic motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organization.

grades become a reward for compliance—but don't have much to do with learning. Meanwhile, students whose grades don't measure up often see themselves as failures and give up trying to learn.

The most fulfilling jobs share a common trait: They prod us to work at our highest level but in a way that we, not someone else, control.

Rewards can deliver a short-term boost—just as a jolt of caffeine can keep you cranking for a few more hours. But the effect wears off—and, worse, can reduce a person's longer-term motivation to continue the project.

Carrots & sticks are so last century. Drive says for 21st century work, we need to upgrade to autonomy, mastery & purpose.

In fact, the business school professors suggest they should come with their own warning label: Goals may cause systematic problems for organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation, and decreased intrinsic motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organization.

for some people work remains routine, unchallenging, and directed by others. But for a surprisingly large number of people, jobs have become more complex, more interesting, and more self-directed.