How to Deal with Motivation Problems.

Comment on, The Great Addiction to Motivation

By saying that we lack the motivation, it gives us another excuse to procrastinate.

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Have any tips for getting your motivation back? I’d love to hear them.

I think we misidentify the issue when we claim it is motivation (as you allude to). As to why we don't take action, I believe it is more about habit than motivation. As to what to do, make habits of what you care about.

Our organizations often demotivate us. We don't need pep talks and reward/carrots to get over the de-motivation. We need the practices that de-motivate us (Dilbert does a good job highlighting many of these) to cease. In this sense what is needed to motivate us is to remove those things that are de-motiving us. Leaving those in place and relying on pep talk and such gimmicks is a losing strategy.

Words about how employees should be all motivated about work while the organization beats out the intrinsic motivation people have at ever turn only drives de-motivation to higher levels. Instead, build an organization where intrinsic motivation flourishes.

For more ideas see the Curious Cat Management Improvement blog posts on motivation.