INTRODUCTION

Why Motivation Science Matters

Motivation is at the heart of everything you do and want to do but don’t. Motivation is also the reason you do things you wish you didn’t.

Millions of books, podcasts, seminars, workshops, incentives, contests, rewards, coaching sessions, diet plans, and self-help groups attest to our desire to master our motivation. They also reflect our lack of understanding about what motivation is and how to use it for achieving our goals.

What’s missing in most approaches to motivation is a unifying theory and foundational model explaining why a technique works or doesn’t. How else will you know when advice is valid, reliable, or worthy of pursuit? We need motivation science—ideas and techniques we can rely on because they are backed by empirical evidence and demonstrated over time to work across a variety of cultures, situations, personalities, genders, and generations.

Of course, a plethora of motivation theories have been touted over the years. Unfortunately, some of the most commonly accepted theories are outdated or have been proven inadequate or downright wrong. For example, we’re only now realizing the drawbacks and hidden costs of relying on extrinsic motivation in the workplace. External forms of motivation, often referred to as “carrots” (rewards, incentives, power, status, and image) and “sticks” (pressure, guilt, fear, and threats) were popularized back in the 1940s by B. F. Skinner, who used training animals as a model for motivating human beings. Now we know that extrinsic motivators do not promote real or permanent change and are more likely to diminish the quality of your results, performance, creativity, innovation, and well-being—even in the short term. And, despite Abraham Maslow’s contributions to motivation science, his hierarchy of needs, the most popular motivation model in the world, has never been empirically proven.¹

Enter Dr. Edward Deci and Dr. Richard Ryan and thousands of self-determination theory (SDT) researchers who have rigorously pursued understanding the nature of our motivation and explaining how it really works.² Their discoveries using a variety of scientific methods, including qualitative and quantitative academic research, neuroscience, and psychological clinical practice, represent the most comprehensive breakthroughs in motivation science. The three scientific truths revealed in this book are at the core of their groundbreaking research. You will come to understand these truths in the coming pages, but that won’t be enough to master your motivation.

As the old saying goes, to know and not to do is not to know. Good science is applied science. Understanding the three scientific truths is only the beginning. You also need to know how to apply the truths—what to do differently than you’ve done in the past. But even well-intentioned approaches to good applied science face the challenge of unraveling complex ideas and translating them into digestible nuggets. Oversimplifying great science to the point it loses its potency poses a challenge. For example, you might have heard about two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic:

   Intrinsic motivation, considered the preferred type of motivation, occurs when you do something for the pure enjoyment of doing it, without the need for or promise of an external reward.

   Extrinsic motivation, considered the less preferred type of motivation, occurs when you need an external prompt or reason for doing something you don’t naturally enjoy doing.

However, boiling motivation down to its nubs renders it almost impossible to use. For example, I’m sure you can identify a goal or task that will never be intrinsically motivating to you: dragging yourself out of bed in the morning to attend a staff meeting you think is a waste of time, being forced to leave your family on a Sunday for a business trip, completing bureaucratic paperwork that steals time from your “real” job, or giving up french fries and comfort food to lose weight for your upcoming school reunion.

Simplifying motivation into two types, intrinsic and extrinsic, presents a conundrum when you aren’t intrinsically motivated. Your only fallback position is extrinsic motivation. And if extrinsic motivation is your only other option, you are more likely to succumb to traditional and outdated techniques to compensate for your lack of intrinsic motivation—perpetuating those proverbial extrinsic carrots and sticks to motivate yourself and others.

The challenge this book takes on is to simplify motivation science without oversimplifying it. Yes, this new and cutting-edge science is more complex—and reaching the other side of complexity takes time, experimentation, and diligence. That’s why I’ve spent decades working with some of the best minds in the world to develop a unique framework and approach to motivation that has proven both empirically sound and practical to use.

When my book Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work … and What Does was published in 2014, its focus was to teach leaders how to nurture a work environment where people are more likely to experience optimal motivation, produce results, and thrive.

The focus of this book is you. Instead of waiting for someone else to shape your motivation, you will learn the skills for mastering your own motivation. The ideas have been vetted by individuals from across the globe in almost every type of industry you can imagine, representing people of all ages and generations. Many of them share their firsthand accounts in this book. My greatest hope is that you will discover and embrace the insights and tools to master your motivation, improve the quality of your life, and, in the process, find joy in contributing to a world that works for all.