The 3 Needs for Building Motivation

If you Google “What is motivation?”, you will get over a thousand answers about motivation being a “desire,” drive,” “force,” and “guide.” But all these definitions take away from what motivation truly is: a process.

Motivation CAN be described as a drive, but that drive is something we can directly improve through understanding that motivation is, in fact, a process. Motivation is about internalizing an external motivator into your identity and beliefs. We use the term external motivation to describe wanting something for the purpose of reward, fame, or image. Through the process of internalization, that motivator of reward and fame turns into the motivator of personal growth which is purely internal motivation.

The 3 Needs of Motivation

Building motivation through the process of internalization happens by gradually meeting three basic psychological needs: competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Competence is the need to feel knowledgeable about how to reach a goal, relatedness is the need to feel connected to others chasing a similar goal, and autonomy is the need to feel in control and have a sense of choice in your actions to reach your goal.

If just one of these needs is not met, you will struggle “finding the motivation” to chase after your all-important goal. To meet these three needs:

1. Learn about your goal so that you feel ultimately prepared to accomplish it

2. Find and connect with others who are chasing after a similar goal

3. Make sure that you are CHOOSING to act towards this goal and not for some other reason

By meeting these three checkpoints, you will ensure that you always feel motivated about your goal and internalize your motivation to reach it into your identity. Not only does this help make your changes longer-lasting, it also improves your personal well-being and quality of life by leaps-and-bounds.