Are those around you motivated?

Are those around you motivated?

I think some leaders confuse motivation and manipulation.

The clue lies in the sentence, “It is a leader’s job to motivate their staff!”

Or this sentence: “We have to motivate people to…[fill in the blank with some desired accomplishment.]”

Or even this sentence: “We need to put the right incentives in place, to get people to align with our goals!”

These are all statements that reveal manipulation, not motivation.

When did we decide that motivation is something that we can or should do to someone else?

For me, personally, I am responsible for my own motivation.  It is up to me to determine what actions I will or will not take. And if I am motivated or unmotivated to do something, that is on me. I get to choose what motivates me.

When others attempt to motivate me to do something, it doesn’t take me long to feel I am being manipulated, and that is never a good feeling.

Real motivation comes from within.  It is when I am doing something that I really want to do, because I deem it to be valuable in some way for me to do it.  It is internal, intrinsic.

And when that happens, whatever I am doing becomes a joy, and no longer “work”!

I suspect others feel much the same way.

So, do you agree?  And what motivates you?