The secret to staying motivated

Image by Alessandro Bosi from Getty Images

There are lots of things that get in the way of creating…

Lack of time, absence of money, other commitments, the fact that your living room suddenly smells of damp and you cannot work out why (just me?!).

But sometimes it’s just that there is a void of energy and enthusiasm where our motivation once used to reside.

Different people need different things to motivate them of course. But to find out what’s right for each of us as an individual, it might be helpful to understand the theory of motivation and how it works.

A quick preamble here though! There is no such thing as one right answer in my world. I’m simply sharing a lens you might find useful in understanding how your own motivation works. Plus if you’re a geek like me you may just enjoy taking a little Thursday meander through some psychological concepts. Please take what’s helpful and toss the rest away!

So you may have come across the concepts of extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation before, but if not here’s a quick recap:

Extrinsic motivation is is driven by external forces. This could be a reward such as money, praise from others, a prize or finding TikTok fame 💃. But it can also come from wanting to avoid punishment or shame. Doing your homework just so you avoid getting a detention is a classic example of extrinsic motivation most of us are conditioned to respond to!

For creatives common external motivators include making enough to pay the bills, wanting to be respected by peers, the desire to be acknowledged for your work, praise from your audience, getting high engagement on your content, avoiding clients complaining and not getting fired because you missed a deadline.

Intrinsic motivation comes from a different place - from within. Our main incentive to begin and then complete a task is because it brings something to us internally. That may for example be enjoyment, a sense of achievement or it feeds our curiosity.

As a creative you might be intrinsically motivated to paint because you love exploring the possibilities of your medium. You might go out and take photos because you are curious about human behaviour. Or you might want to master video editing because it makes you feel accomplished. Anything you do just because it brings you joy is intrinsically motivated.

These two overarching types of motivation can coexist too. For example you might begin a series of prints because you want to have something to submit to an exhibition and sell. But over the course of the project you might become fascinated by an aspect of the process and find your main motivation has become to really explore the possibilities of the materials you are working with.

It’s also not clear cut that extrinsic motivation is ‘bad’ and intrinsic motivation is ‘good’. Honestly I don’t think a single one of my tax returns would exist without my terrible fear of getting in trouble combined with regularly rewarding myself with chocolate biscuits. There is absolutely nothing about my tax return that is intrinsically motivating for me and that’s ok. I can use the extrinsic motivators to do what I have to do - get it done and not go to prison.

I also want to point out that you aren’t ‘wrong’ if you find yourself primarily using external motivators to get shit done or meet your other needs. In capitalist society it’s pretty common that we aren’t passionate about our job. Instead our drive is so meet our mortgage payments, buy food or maybe take the occasional holiday. There is no shaming intended here I’m simply sharing ideas you might find useful. However when it comes to our creativity, which is a core part of our sense of self and how we process the world, I do think we need to find motivation within ourselves rather then always outside of us to feel fulfilled.

And just to add another layer to this, we can also internalise extrinsic motivation too. We understand why we should do something and therefore the outcomes are positive for us. For example brushing our teeth is initially extrinsically motivated (trust me, as someone who has taught children to brush their teeth it is not instinctive!) but over time we begin to see brushing our teeth as part of our self care. In creativity that might be something like washing brushes after using them. We only started doing this because adults directed us to but now we do it to care for our tools so we can continue to use and enjoy them.

However it is widely believed that intrinsic motivation is the more beneficial and sustainable of the two, particularly when it comes to creative action.

Psychologists Deci and Ryan developed the Self-Determination Theory of motivation. Up to this point the dominant belief was that people were best motivated to get things done when offered rewards (i.e the carrot approach 🥕).

They argue that when rewarded, our motivation to continue to develop at a task will decrease from this point. However when our motivation is intrinsic we will stay engaged and keep learning because we find satisfaction and enjoyment in doing so. They believe harnessing this intrinsic motivation facilitates our ability to make meaningful choices and direct our own life.

They also defined three psychological needs that must be met for intrinsic motivation to be fostered. These are:

✨ Autonomy - Do you feel in control of your own actions and choices?​
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​✨ Competence (sometimes referred to as Mastery) - Do you feel you have the skills you need to find success? Are you able to find the challenge of gaining or develop these skills fulfilling?
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​✨ Relatedness (often redefined as Purpose or Connection) - Does what you are doing make you feel connected to others or like you are contributing to the world in ways you see as valuable?

These are often expanded to include:
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​✨ Curiosity - Does this make you eager to learn more or develop new knowledge?

✨ Enjoyment - Are you finding this activity fun? Does it help you to reach a flow state?

How is this useful to us as sensitive creative people?

Once we understand the ways in which we are extrinsically motivated we can draw our attention to how this is impacting our creative life.

For example, are you making art because you want to, or because you want something to share on social media?

Do you feel proud of your creations or do you need praise and compliments from others to believe your work is good enough to continue it?

Are you making coasters because they really excite you, or because your friend thinks you should?

Are you constantly driven by what you think your customers or funders will like so you can make enough money (totally understandable if so btw, we all need to pay the bills but it could be contributing to why you aren’t enjoying your creative work.)

Is the only way you can get things finished the fear or being embarrassed or getting in trouble?

Are you focusing on what it will feel like to be successful later down the line and missing out on the joy of the journey?

If you find yourself heavily relying on extrinsic motivation, what can you change to feel more autonomous and self-directed?

We can also use our awareness of the factors of intrinsic motivation to help us adapt what we are doing to enable us feel more internally driven.

What would make you feel you had more choice and control in the things you are making?

What support would help you to feel more competent in your craft or gain the skills you need to thrive? Where can you find it?

Does what you are making align with your values? Do you feel like you are contributing something of meaning to the world? If not, what could you change to make this more true?

Are you excited about this thing? Do you find yourself looking forward to the next step? Of not, how can you peak your curiosity?

Are you enjoying the process? Are the different actions you need to take to make this thing happen fun for you? If not, how can you make them more fun?

But perhaps you are reading this and thinking that it all makes sense on paper. But you love your creative work, or at least you used to, so why can’t you find motivation to make it anymore?

There could be a few answers to that…

🪫 Are you really tired of doing the same thing?

🪫 Are you burnt out?

🪫 Are there things happening in your life that are draining you?

As a sensitive and/or neurodivergent creative we are more affected by people pleasing, performance anxiety and worrying about what others think of us which can all lead to leaning on extrinsic motivational approaches.

We are also very values led people so if we aren’t doing work which feels meaningful or related to our purpose that can manifest as lethargy or that distracted sense of searching because something doesn’t feel right.

However in my next blog post ‘Do you have an interest based nervous system?’ we’ll be looking at how our nervous system can contribute to how motivated we feel 😊

In the meantime I hope this has been useful and you feel empowered to experiment with finding new ways to jump start your creative motivation!

Was this post useful to you? If so please help me to offer these resources to the sensitive creatives who need them! It's easy, just share it with someone you know who might appreciate it. You can send them this blogpost with the link https://www.eleanorchaney.com/on-creativity/the-secret-to-staying-motivated

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