Author: Damian Kohl

6 Types of Motivation and How They Can Improve Your Life

motivation can guide you to the top of the mountain

motivation can guide you to the top of the mountain

Motivation is the one of the most important aspects of life. If you live your life without this important part, it is like being on a journey without a proper direction.

At least, I find motivation very important for my life. I’m sure you have something that motivates your life too.

Good motivation is what fuels me into action. It propels me toward achieving my heart’s desires.

It is true that most of the time I try my life not to be driven by forces that come from outside. However, motivation is still very important to me, and represents a crucial gratification for a happy life.

I believe the type of motivation matters. When I was younger the main motivational power in my life was achievement motivation. It was behind most of the things I was striving to achieve, like finishing school, having a successful carrier, acquiring material things, etc.

This type of motivation is not bad as it is, however, as I grew older, I found out that I need something deeper and more profound to keep me going. Then I discovered spiritual motivation.

In this post I will try to present several types of motivation that have impacted my life in the past and I know that will have a huge impact in the future too.

Here are some of the more important life motivations.

Types of Motivation

Achievement Motivation

Achievement motivation is one of the most important driving force in everyone’s life. It is a strong force that makes us pursue our tasks, no matter how hard and complicated they are.

I use it all the time when I need to pursue some goals important to me. For example, the other day I was strongly motivated to write a paper for a research journal, because I knew it could have a strong impact on certain aspect of my carrier as a scientist.

If you want to climb the pinnacle of success this type of motivation will come in handy. People with achievement motivation are usually risk takers that stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Do you have a burning desire for achieving success? If not, you’ll have to cultivate it to push yourself toward the goal. You will have to keep thinking about your goal and develop an almost obsessive desire that completely fills your mind and attention.

So, set some time aside, find your true life’s purpose, and let your achievement motivation keeps you working toward accomplishing that purpose.

Competence motivation

Competence motivation is another type positioned high on my list of favorite motivations.

If I want to stand out from the other people, I’d better be able to do something valuable or unique. So, this motivations makes you want to strive to achieve mastery in some area of life.

If you are driven by this type of motivation, you are always trying to outdo your peers in whatever it is that you do. You are trying to improve your problem solving abilities, which gives you an upper hand over your competition.

As a rule, this type of motivation is great because it leads to a comfortable and fulfilling life.

Power motivation

Power motivation is yet another type of healthy motivation.

Who doesn’t want to be influential, to be in charge of the forces that change everything around us. Power motivation will help you in cases where you want to establish firm control at work or in any activity involving other people that is really important to you.

If you work in a competitive environment, this type of strong motivational force will have the greatest impact on you and on the people around you. Beware, however, power can backfire if misused.

Attitude motivation

Attitude motivation is a subtle type of motivation. It has to do with your predefine attitudes toward life, how you feel about the future.

This is probably my favorite type. Because if you develop positive attitude toward life in general, your thoughts and feelings will always be right in every situation.

With positive attitude you can accomplish everything, even the most complicated things.

At the same time you should do your best to eradicate negative attitudes from your mind. They are detrimental and have a negative impact on your performance.

Fear motivation

Fear motivation is something I never recommend because it involves punishment, or other negative consequences. Besides, fear is a negative emotion and I’d try to avoid it as much as possible.

In the business world, there is an expression that describes this type of motivation very well, “carrot and stick”. When the carrot (incentive) motivation fails, the stick (fear) is the driving force.

My advice is to try to avoid fear motivation as a driving force. Not only are the other forms of motivation more effective, but your life would be so much better and more fulfilling without fear in it.

Spiritual motivation

Not all goals in life are goals of material achievement, status, or social recognition. Above them there comes our deepest need of spiritual achievement. We are spiritual beings first and foremost.

This is where spiritual motivation kicks in. It is the strongest force of all. Nothing can motivate me more strongly than the burning desire of my heart for spirituality.

This is a form of long term motivation that drives us toward goals of unimaginable power and beauty.

If you’ve been infected with this type of motivation, you know how powerful it can be. You ought to follow the call of your heart toward the heights of your spiritual achievements.

On the other hand, neglecting the spiritual side of your self can never bring any lasting happiness and satisfaction.

The significance of motivation

If you consider the six motivational forces described above, you won’t have any difficulty seeing how significant motivation is. Motivation builds a bridge between you and your life goals.

Motivation fuels your life force and drives you toward reaching your goals. Life without motivation is hard to imagine.

So learn how to motivate yourself, pick the one that is best for your goals and make sure that your car never runs out of gas.

References for further reading

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: www

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: www

Motivational wave (motivational technique): www

Other techniques to increase motivation in your life: www

Spiritual and motivational stories: www

Photo by Sam Hawley

About Damian Kohl

Damian Kohl is a participant in an online campaign for Mindful Change project. It is an Australian site devoted to personal development and life coaching.

Filed under: Blog Posts, Personal Growth