Questions that Fuel Energy when Your Tank is Low
Two people face the same challenge. One rises and thrives. One stumbles and flounders. The difference is motivational energy.
You are responsible to manage your energy.
Don’t surrender to a lousy boss, boring task, or turbulent environment.
The three buckets of motivational energy are choice, connection, and competence. (Master Your Motivation) Look in these buckets when energy fades.
Energy sinks when you:
- Feel like a puppet.
- Engage in tasks that seem trivial or meaningless.
- Aren’t learning or developing skills.
Click HERE to see my interview with Susan Fowler! (4:29)
Energy rises when you:
- Make choices.
- See meaning even in the mundane.
- Develop useful skills.
The most powerful questions are the questions you speak to yourself.
Energy in choice:
Choice is the perception that we are the ones directing our behavior …” (Master your Motivation)
- What choices do I have?
- What choices have I made?
- Which choices am I glad I made?
- What choices would I like to do over?
- What choices do I have going forward?
“… sometimes recognizing that we have choice is enough to make the right choice.” Susan Fowler
Energy in connection:
Connection includes the belief that, “… our goals … are aligned to meaningful values and a sense of purpose.” Susan Fowler
- What do I find that’s meaningful in this experience?
- What is it that is going to help me contribute to others?
- How does this goal align with my values and purpose?
Energy in competence:
“Competence is the ability to see progress and demonstrate skill over time.” Susan Fowler
- What am I learning?
- What could I learn?
- What skills do I have?
- What skills could I develop?
- What am I learning that helps me serve others?
“Of all the things that can boost inner work life, the most important is making progress in meaningful work.” Amabile and Kramer (HBR)
How might leaders manage their own motivational energy?
How Susan Fowler helps her husband find optimal motivation. (YouTube)
The power of choice – i need to remember this in the hustle of the work day/work week. To take a moment to reflect on the actions for myself and my team – great post Dan. Sharing with the team.
Thanks Jeff. It’s interesting that hustle might cause us to forget that we have choice. It seems there’s value in taking a moment to reflect and asking ourselves if we are in choice.
It seems like a good idea to provide team members with the opportunity to reflect as well.
Choice is power. Many years ago I felt trapped in a job i hated. My husband had just launched his business, the kids were small and the bills were large. It seemed like the worst possible time to look for another job, knowing my boss would happily fire me if she found out. One day my spouse said to me “why don’t you just quit? Sure it will be tough but we won’t starve to death. We’ll find a way.” Just knowing I truly had a choice was the most liberating thing in the world I truly felt a weight had been lifted. Each day I could face the #(*&$(*# at work knowing that I had options. My energy and motivation changed completely, and I found another job within a month that was not only more fulfilling but paid better. That was 25 years ago and I’ve never forgotten how that moment felt or how positively it changed my whole career.
Thanks Susan. What a great illustration. It’s interesting that YOU changed before your circumstances changed.
Sometimes others help us see that we have choice.
The application seems to be: we help people find energy when we help them see their choices.
What motivates me (to get off my tush, to engage) is to ask these very same questions (AFTER I’ve done this very exercise), but substituting “we” & “us” for “I” and “me.”
My own experience is that isolating the diverging answers between the two sets generates synergy …
a whole effect which is greater than the sum of the individual effects …
an energy creating phenomena (rather than dissapitive ones).
I’ve also found it more productive/successful to think of developmental “capacity” rather than limitive “competency.” Competency is a competitive construct (me against the world); Capacity is a far more collaborative construct. IMHE (In my humble experience).
Thanks Rurbane. The idea of development capacity seems important to me. Where is my untapped opportunity for growth/learning/development?
It’s fun to see things through a new lens. Thanks again.
Speaking of development,
There is another useful overlay / triangulation that can be applied to the connection/capability/choice = motivation filter: the 4 wills … the Will to
Desire/Craving*Influence/Power*Meaning/Effect = Integrity …
when these four wills can be aligned (reconciled – both individually and collectively),
essential mind over matter “happens” (transformative/transcendental motivation)
and epiphanies can be “realized.”
(As opposed to the more normative and existential matter over mind where imitation and predictability are more valued motives).
Time and again, I’ve seen this (inherently innovative) dynamic “work” in corporate practice and real estate development projects (the win/win/win scenario) … it’s truly, really not just philosophizing.
Dan, these are good questions. We often think that we have no choice when we do. We always have choices. Asking yourself questions is better than declarative self talk because the questions demand a response.
Once again, truly great and useful! Thanks much!
I clicked on a link within a post from 04/24/20 titled 7 WAYS TO FUEL ENERGY DURING A PANEMIC under the 7th way listed. Since this post was published almost 1 year apart, it is a great time to reflect on the current situation in 2020 and review how to fuel energy when our tank is low. I played baseball up through college which is a large portion of my life. I remember being taught on the baseball field that there are two things you can always control. These two things are your attitude and effort. While this was discussed on the baseball field, it can be applied to all aspects of our life. I believe that energy in our life can be controlled by our attitude and effort. The post mentioned that energy sinks low when a few things occur such as trivial tasks. Trivial task will occur throughout our career or life. We should not let trivial task overtake our life, but they will always happen. Our attitude and effort during those trivial tasks will determine our character. As mentioned in the post, we must see “meaning even in the mundane.” As previously mentioned, baseball was a huge part of my life and baseball is a sport of muscle memory. You must do the mundane or trivial task correctly so your muscle memory will develop. It can be difficult to teach young baseball players the trivial task of stepping on the corner of the bag when rounding a base. These kids view this teaching and practice as mundane and trivial. Yet, during a game they must do it correctly or it could be the difference between being safe or out. The small and mundane tasks are important to develop into muscle memory. If neglected, they can become major issues in the future.