Master Your Motivation

Book excerpt: If you want to accomplish what's important to you, discipline and willpower won't get you where you need to go. In this iconoclastic new book, Susan Fowler reveals compelling insights and actions to help you master and maintain your motivation. Motivation is at the heart of everything you do and everything you want to do but don't. Unfortunately, the ways we typically motivate ourselves don't work. Relying on sheer determination eventually becomes exhausting—it's not sustainable. And even setting goals can backfire—if you're not setting them for the right reasons. Susan Fowler says motivation is energy, and what matters is the quality, not the quantity. Traditional “motivators” such as fear, guilt, or the promise of a reward provide low-quality, short-term energy. Drawing on the latest empirical research, she proves that high-quality, optimal motivation is a skill that you can learn and apply. Science tells us that satisfying three basic needs—for choice, connection, and competence—is essential to optimal motivation. You need to feel like you've picked your path, not that you're being driven down it. Your goal should be linked to people or a purpose meaningful to you. And you want to continually learn and grow. Through practical exercises and eye-opening stories, Fowler shows you how to identify and shift the quality of your motivation. The skill to master your motivation is important—it may be your greatest opportunity to evolve, grow in wisdom, and be the light the world so desperately needs.