Understanding Motivation: Key Factors and Practical Tips for Success
Table of Contents
Why Understanding Motivation Matters
Motivation is more than just energy—it’s life’s ignition switch. It’s the spark behind every action, the silent engine that powers your dreams, your goals, your growth. It drives your behavior, fuels your focus, and breathes purpose into even the most ordinary tasks. Without it, success fades into a distant hope. With it, transformation becomes inevitable.
Understanding the importance of motivation is crucial for achieving success and personal growth. Recognizing why motivation matters can help you unlock your potential and reach your goals more effectively.
But here’s the truth most people miss: understanding motivation isn’t just about figuring out what makes you tick. It’s about awakening the fire within you—the desire that won’t let you quit, the vision that pulls you forward when things get hard.
It’s about learning how to activate the right motivational processes—those unseen forces inside your mind and body that can move you from hesitation to action, from fear to boldness. When you learn how to truly stay motivated, you stop waiting for the perfect mood or moment.
You create it. You become the kind of person who doesn’t just start strong—but finishes. Who doesn’t just dream big—but follows through. Who transforms a single, focused decision into a ripple effect of real, lasting success.
Whether you’re facing a single daunting task, navigating a major lifestyle change, or simply trying to feel motivated again—you’re in the right place. While this article may not have all the answers, it provides strategies and perspectives to help you overcome motivation challenges.
Because once you understand the deeper process of motivation, you don’t just change what you do. You change who you become.
The Science Behind Motivational Processes
Motivation is a complex process that involves cognitive processes, emotional states, and even physiological responses. Research suggests that human motivation is deeply connected with our mental state and brain areas dedicated to reward and focus.
Studies show that motivation engages the prefrontal cortex (for decision-making) and the ventral striatum (for reward processing), which together influence how we initiate and sustain effortful tasks (Pessoa, 2009).
These brain regions are also responsible for making complex decisions about effort, reward, and goal pursuit, integrating signals from various sources to guide our actions. By understanding these motivational processes, you can decode why you or most people feel motivated—or lose motivation—and how you can harness this knowledge to change your behaviour.
This insight empowers you to stay motivated by working with, not against, your mind and body. Motivation should always be understood within the context of an individual’s environment, experiences, and psychological state.
Types of Motivation: Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Achievement
The idea of motivation has been explored extensively in psychology and philosophy, shaping our understanding of why people engage in certain behaviors.
A major key factor in mastering motivational processes is distinguishing between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The word ‘motivation’ comes from the Latin ‘movere’, meaning ‘to move’, and in psychological frameworks, it refers to the internal states or reasons that drive people to act.
1) Intrinsic Motivation: The Flame Within
Imagine a woman named Alia who loses herself in painting for hours, completely absorbed in the rhythm of the brush and the swirl of colours. She isn’t trying to win a prize or get praised—she paints because it makes her feel alive.
Alia is deeply interested in painting, and this interest fuels her intrinsic motivation. This is intrinsic motivation in its purest form. Intrinsic motivation is the inner spark that drives you to do a particular task not because someone is watching, but because it feels right.
It’s born from internal needs, curiosity, purpose, and the sheer joy of the process. When you’re intrinsically motivated, the behavior itself becomes the reward. You don’t need a push—you’re pulled forward by passion.
According to Self-Determination Theory, people who act from intrinsic motivation show higher engagement, deeper creativity, and greater resilience in the face of failure as compared to those driven purely by external rewards (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
2) Extrinsic Motivation: The External Push
Now picture Jake, a young man grinding out long hours at a corporate job he doesn’t love—but he’s aiming for the promotion, the title, the prestige. His effort is driven by external rewards. This is extrinsic motivation—and it’s not a bad thing. In fact, it can be a powerful tool when used consciously.
Behaviours driven by extrinsic motivation are often rewarded with tangible outcomes, such as bonuses, promotions, or public recognition.
Extrinsic motivation comes from external stimuli: praise, recognition, bonuses, grades, likes, trophies. These outside influences trigger motivated behavior, especially when you need a boost to begin or persist through discomfort.
External rewards can be highly motivating, particularly when intrinsic motivation is low. It’s what pushes you to study for the exam, meet the deadline, or show up when you’d rather not. Extrinsic motivators can initiate positive behaviour, especially when paired with intrinsic drivers.
But left unchecked, they can lead to burnout or a sense of emptiness—where success feels more like obligation than fulfillment.
3) Achievement Motivation: The Drive to Become
Then there’s a third force—achievement motivation—the deep desire to succeed, to grow, to achieve positive outcomes not just for rewards, but for the satisfaction of becoming more than you were before.
Think of Rosa, a single mother who went back to school in her 40s—not for accolades, but to prove to herself and her children that she could rise. She didn’t just want a degree—she wanted transformation.
She was fuelled by achievement motivation: the internal fire to master a skill, complete a mission, and write a new story for her life. Rosa’s motivation was realized when she achieved her degree and experienced personal transformation.
There is a strong relationship between achievement motivation and the drive to continually improve oneself, as motivation shapes how people pursue growth and success.
Achievement motivation, particularly when focused on mastery and growth, leads to stronger outcomes and positive consequences (Elliot & Church, 1997).
The Motivation Blend: Finding Your Formula
Here’s the magic: Most motivational processes aren’t fuelled by just one type of motivation—they’re a blend. Often, one behaviour is influenced by a combination of intrinsic, extrinsic, and achievement motives.
For example, a student might study hard not only because they enjoy learning (intrinsic motivation), but also to earn good grades (extrinsic motivation) and to outperform their peers (achievement motivation).
These examples show how different types of motivation can work together in real-life situations. The key is becoming aware of what drives you. Is your energy rooted in joy, or validation? Fulfilment, or pressure?
Once you know, you can realign your tasks, your goals, and your environment to activate the type of motivation that truly lasts. Because when you combine intrinsic joy with external goals—and back it all with the determination of achievement motivation—you become unstoppable. You turn obstacles into stepping stones, and even failure into fuel.
So ask yourself today:
What kind of fire is burning in you? And what would happen if you poured the right fuel on it?
Setting External Goals to Drive Behaviour
Setting clear and specific external goals is one of the most effective strategies to stay motivated. When you chart out external goals—be it creating to-do lists, setting deadlines, or tracking progress—you align your daily behaviour with your larger vision.
Setting external goals helps maintain motivation for a certain activity by providing structure and measurable progress, making it easier to stay engaged and persistent.
This helps increase motivation by providing a steady stream of positive consequences and tangible rewards, ensuring you remain motivated throughout your journey. Not only do these external goals provide direction and accountability, but they also enhance intrinsic motivation by giving you a clear purpose and boosting your progress in every task you undertake.
Locke and Latham’s Goal Setting Theory shows that people who set challenging goals perform better and stay more motivated (Locke & Latham, 2002).
Understanding Internal Needs: What Drives Us
Beyond external goals, the internal needs of humans play a significant role in why we feel motivated. To truly stay motivated, you must go beneath the surface—beyond checklists, beyond rewards, beyond applause—and ask yourself: What am I really craving?
Because at the root of all human behaviour lies something deeper than ambition. It’s the quiet voice of internal needs—those unseen drivers that whisper, push, and sometimes roar within us.
According to Maslow’s theory of human motivation (Maslow, 1943), our actions are shaped by a hierarchy of needs:
- Physiological needs at the physiological level, like food, rest, and health—the foundation of Maslow’s hierarchy
- Safety—both physical and emotional
- Belonging and connection
- Esteem—a sense of worth and accomplishment
- Self-actualization—the desire to become who you were truly meant to be
These needs form the scaffolding of your motivation. When a need goes unmet—whether it’s a lack of security, love, or meaning—your mental state shifts.
You feel off, restless, disconnected. Even the most exciting tasks lose their spark. You might push forward for a while, driven by external stimulation, but eventually… burnout creeps in. While these needs can be subtly influenced by external stimulation and rewards, they stem from deep internal desires that shape human behaviour.
By recognizing and honouring your inner needs, you pave the way to stay motivated even when external rewards are scarce. This alignment between your internal desires and external tasks can transform your overall mental state and lead to both positive outcomes and lasting lifestyle changes.
Coaching Story: From Stuck to Self-Driven
Let me tell you about one of my coaching clients, Melissa (pseudonym).
She was a high-performing executive on paper—leading a team, hitting numbers, chasing promotions. But behind the scenes? She was crumbling. Tired. Uninspired. She came to me saying, “I just don’t feel motivated anymore. I don’t know what’s wrong.”
When we dug deeper, the issue wasn’t her goals—it was that her internal needs were being ignored. She hadn’t taken a vacation in over two years. She felt isolated in her role. And most of all, she no longer felt aligned with the work she was doing—it lacked purpose.
No amount of bonuses or performance reviews could fill the void. What she needed was connection, clarity, and a reason to care again.
Together, we reshaped her schedule to prioritise wellness, rebuilt her support network, and aligned her role with her core values. Slowly but surely, her mental state shifted. She started to feel motivated again—not because someone told her to—but because her soul finally felt seen.
Aligning Inner Desires with Outer Action
When you recognise your internal needs, you shift from chasing motivation to creating it.
Maybe your body is asking for rest. Maybe your spirit is craving creative expression. Maybe your heart just wants to belong. Whatever it is, when you honour that truth—and align it with your daily tasks—something powerful happens:
Your motivational processes light up from the inside. Your behaviour becomes an extension of your deepest values. This alignment often leads to observable behavioural changes, as your actions begin to reflect your internal needs and motivations.
You begin to experience more positive outcomes—not just in achievement, but in fulfilment. And that’s when real, lasting lifestyle changes begin—not through willpower, but through alignment.
So ask yourself:
What need in me is calling for attention right now? And how can I serve that need… while building the life I truly want?
Strategies to Stay Motivated Through Challenges
Keeping a consistent level of motivation, especially when facing setbacks, requires actionable strategies. Breaking large tasks into smaller, manageable chunks is a key strategy for staying motivated. When you take a process-oriented approach, it becomes easier to track progress and see positive consequences along the way.
Here are several strategies:
Break It Down:
Divide complex tasks into smaller parts so that each achievement fuels you to stay motivated.
Routine and Structure:
Establish a daily routine that creates a conducive mental space for continuous motivational processes.
- Build a Habit:
Focus on creating simple, repeatable routines that become automatic habits. Developing a habit reduces decision fatigue and helps you maintain motivation even when your initial drive fades.
- Social Support:
Surround yourself with people who reinforce your efforts to stay motivated. This connection can help combat negative emotions and boost your overall drive.
- Celebrate Wins:
Reward yourself for progress—whether that’s a small win or a big breakthrough—and keep your focus on forward movement.
- Get Reliable Accountability Partners:
Whether you engage a personal coach or form a mastermind group, having reliable accountability partners can help you to sustain motivation and overcome challenges.
Using these strategies not only helps you stay motivated but also ensures that your behaviour remains aligned with achieving key external goals and positive outcomes. Remember, sticking to your routines and habits is crucial for maintaining long-term motivation.
Overcoming Obstacles and Mental Blocks
Many people struggle with maintaining motivation, especially when faced with setbacks. Even with the best ideas and hard work, life has a way of testing us. Setbacks, self-doubt, and fear will come. That’s not a flaw in the system—that is the system.
Obstacles are part of the journey. And often, the motivational processes that once drove us forward begin to stall when we’re overwhelmed by painful emotions like anxiety, frustration, or shame. Thinking about making a change is often the first step in overcoming these motivational blocks.
But here’s what most people don’t realize:
Those blocks aren’t stop signs. They’re invitations. Invitations to grow. To break patterns. To become more.
Here’s how to conquer these barriers:
Reframe the Story:
Transform setbacks into opportunities for growth. When you encounter challenges or delay, your first instinct might be to pull back. But the secret lies in shifting the narrative.
Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?”
ask:
“What is this challenge here to teach me?”
Remember, feeling challenged by a task—when the difficulty is balanced and not too easy or too hard—can actually boost your motivation and keep you engaged. When you reframe setbacks as feedback, you transform them into stepping stones. This single shift can revive your motivation and restore your life.
Coaching Breakthrough Story: When the Fire Almost Went Out
One of my clients, Jessie (pseudonym), was a startup founder with big dreams—but when we started working together, she was ready to quit. Her product had flopped, her team was dwindling, and she’d lost her confidence.
“I just don’t think I’m cut out for this,” she told me. “I feel like a failure.”
But as we peeled back the layers, we discovered something deeper: Jessie wasn’t afraid of hard work—she was afraid of discomfort. She thought if things didn’t flow smoothly, it meant she was inadequate. She believed that successful people always get it right.
And that belief was silently killing her progress. What she realised was that underlying feelings—often operating beneath conscious awareness—can unconsciously influence motivation and the willingness to persist, shaping how we respond to setbacks.
We began to work on reframing failure—not as a verdict, but as data. Every “mistake” became a lesson. Every emotional dip became a signal, not a setback.
Jessie also committed to sitting in her discomfort—spending 15 minutes a day doing something that made her feel awkward: pitching, posting content, owning his voice. We called it “fire training.” And over time, that discomfort turned into courage.
By month three, her company had landed two strategic partnerships. But more importantly? She had changed. She no longer saw himself as inadequate —she saw herself as invincible.
Building and Sustaining Momentum
Motivation is not a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process that requires you to build momentum every day. Research on grit (defined as passion + perseverance) shows it’s a better predictor of success than IQ or talent (Duckworth et al., 2007).
Building grit means:
- Committing to your vision even when it’s hard.
- Repeating positive behaviors until they become habits.
- Adjusting course without abandoning the goal.
Building a consistent writing routine is a clear example of how developing habits can sustain motivation and boost productivity over time.
Momentum builds when you take action—daily, intentionally, and with belief in the positive outcomes ahead.
Here are key practices to build sustained motivation:
Set Clear Goals:
Both intrinsic and external goals should be clearly defined. Consistently align them with your deepest values. Goals that reflect your genuine interest are more likely to sustain motivation over time.
Monitor Progress:
Use journals or tracking systems to record progress and celebrate milestones. This reinforces positive behaviour and helps you stay motivated.
Adopt a Growth Mindset:
Cultivate a mindset that sees failure as a stepping stone to success. This will empower you to make decisions that lead to long-term achievement.
Maintain Healthy Habits:
Exercise, proper nutrition, and adequate rest support both your physical and emotional needs, ensuring your brain and body work in tandem to keep you motivated.
The Role of Self-Care in Motivation
Self-care is not just a luxury—it’s a key factor in sustaining human motivation and unlocking your full potential. When you prioritize your own wellbeing, you create the conditions for intrinsic motivation to flourish.
This means you’re not just pushing yourself to achieve goals for the sake of achievement, but you’re genuinely driven from within, leading to more meaningful and lasting progress.
According to Maslow’s theory, self-actualisation—the highest level of human motivation—can only be reached when your basic needs are met and you feel supported both physically and emotionally.
Self-care is the bridge that helps you move from simply surviving to truly thriving. By taking care of your mind and body, you set the stage for deeper motivation, greater creativity, and the resilience needed to achieve your biggest dreams.
Self-Care Routines for Lasting Motivation
Lasting motivation doesn’t happen by accident—it’s built through intentional self-care routines that support your internal needs and help you stay resilient in the face of challenges.
Activities like meditation, journaling, or simply spending time outdoors can help you reconnect with your intrinsic motivation and keep negative emotions in check. Whether it’s a morning walk, a few minutes of deep breathing, or a weekly check-in with yourself, these small acts of self-care can make a big difference.
They help you stay focused, motivated, and aligned with your internal needs—so you can keep moving forward, overcome challenges, and achieve lasting success in every area of your life.
Research suggests that simple habits like regular exercise, balanced nutrition, and getting enough sleep are essential for maintaining motivation. These routines don’t just keep your body healthy—they also sharpen your mind, boost your mood, and help you stay focused on what you want to achieve.
By making self-care a non-negotiable part of your routine, you give yourself the space to process stress, recharge your energy, and refocus on your goals. These habits help you stay motivated even when life gets tough, leading to more positive outcomes and a greater sense of achievement.
Think of self-care as the foundation for all your efforts. When you build healthy routines into your daily life, you create a positive feedback loop: you feel better, you’re more motivated, and you’re able to achieve more—both in the short term and over the long haul.
Make wellbeing a priority, because you’re investing in the fuel that powers your drive to succeed.
Finding Purpose and Aligning with Meaning
At the core of every motivational process is finding true purpose and meaning in your actions. When you reflect on your values and goals, you discover what truly drives you. When your motivation is clearly understood, it becomes easier to align your actions with your values and purpose.
By aligning your daily tasks with your internal needs and passions, you create a cycle of positive outcomes and progress. Whether it’s for personal development or external rewards, having a purpose leads to a more motivated and fulfilling life.
Remember, feeling motivated isn’t just about pursuing external goals—it’s about aligning with what makes you feel alive and purposeful.
Common Mistakes That Kill Motivation
Even the most driven, passionate people—those who set bold goals and dream big—can unknowingly sabotage their own momentum. Not because they lack potential, but because certain habits quietly creep in and drain their motivation at the root.
Here are three of the most common pitfalls that can block your motivational processes and derail even your best intentions:
⏳ Procrastination
Putting off tasks until the last minute creates a false sense of urgency—but also builds invisible pressure and emotional stress. Over time, this erodes confidence and replaces clarity with chaos. You start feeling like you’re always behind, and that sense of overwhelm becomes paralyzing.
🧠 Negative Self-Talk
The inner critic is a master of disguise. It sounds like caution. It poses as logic. But its real goal is to keep you small. When you allow self-doubt to echo louder than your belief, you begin to question everything:
Am I good enough?
Will this even matter?
That mental noise drowns out your clarity, your courage—and your motivation.
💔 Neglecting Physical and Emotional Needs
Your body is your fuel source. When you ignore rest, skip meals, or live in chronic stress, your mental state suffers. Burnout becomes inevitable. And when your body is running on empty, even your dreams start to feel heavy.
Coaching Story: From Self-Sabotage to Self-Compassion
Let me tell you about Lena (pseudonym), one of my coaching clients and a brilliant creative entrepreneur. She had a powerful message, a growing audience, and a half-written book she swore she’d finish “this year.”
But three years in, that book still sat in a dusty Google Drive folder.
Lena wasn’t lazy. She was deeply motivated by purpose.
But when we started working together, I quickly saw the pattern:
- She was procrastinating by over-planning and over-perfecting.
- She constantly told herself, “I’m not ready,” every time she made progress.
- She skipped meals. Pulled all-nighters. Believed the hustle was a badge of honour.
Her motivational processes were being smothered—by her own impossible standards.
One day in a session, she broke down and said:
“I feel like I’m in a constant cycle of starting, doubting, burning out… and then starting all over again.”
That moment was the turning point.
We didn’t just create a new writing schedule.
We rewired her mental programs from the inside out:
✅ She replaced self-criticism with affirmations of progress.
✅ She added short writing sprints followed by self-care rituals.
✅ She set up accountability with a creative mastermind group.
Three months later, Lena submitted her manuscript.
But more importantly? She reclaimed her energy. Her joy.
She learned that to stay motivated, you have to be kind to yourself—not just committed to your goals.
Your New Plan: Progress Over Perfection
The truth is, motivation isn’t lost in one dramatic moment. It slips away in quiet habits. The snoozed alarm. The unchecked thought. The skipped meal.
But the good news? You can reclaim it just as quietly—by choosing to honor your mind, your body, and your truth. By building daily rituals that feed your focus, regulate your mental state, and remind you that you’re worthy of your goals.
So ask yourself today:
Where am I unintentionally sabotaging my momentum?
What is one gentle shift I can make to get back on track?
Because motivation doesn’t thrive in pressure.
Motivation thrives in permission—the permission to try, to grow, and to do it imperfectly.
Final Thoughts: Motivation Is the Engine of Success
Understanding the complex motivational processes behind our actions is key to living a successful, fulfilling life. Whether you’re striving to stay motivated by setting external goals, nurturing your internal needs, or overcoming obstacles along the way, every step counts.
Embrace both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to transform not just your behaviour but your entire lifestyle.
Ready to break through your limitations and stay motivated no matter what?
Take the first powerful step toward your next level.
📞 Book a complimentary 90-minute coaching call with Coach Rainy now.
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