5th Key to Career Success and Life Fulfillment: How to Motivate Yourself
Yesterday I wrote about inner motivation and made the point that no one can motivate you for a significant time. You have to motivate yourself.
You might have wondered why motivation is even important. Put simply, to become more successful and more fulfilled, you have to continue growing as a lawyer and a person. That involves change and the problem is that change is incredibly difficult.
A few years ago Fast Company magazine published a fascinating article Change or Die. Please click and read it to better understand why changing is so difficult. You will learn that fear of dying is not a motivator. Heart patients know exactly what lifestyle changes they need to make to avoid dying, yet they do not make them. On the other hand the joy of living can be a powerful motivator.
Let's see how the joy of living type of motivation might apply to practicing law. I recently listened to Daniel Pink's new book titled: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
One of Pink's main points is that the carrot-stick (change or die) approach only works in limited situations when the work is so boring or lacking creativity that it is about the only tool to motivate the workers. I suppose it might work for the lawyer who is stuck in a warehouse reviewing 1000s of emails a day to determine whether they are relevant and whether they are privileged. Almost nothing a lawyer does could be more boring. So, rewarding the lawyer by the number of hours he or she puts in might be an appropriate incentive.
Pink believes that intrinsic motivation (joy of living) is what is needed in every other circumstance. He believes that intrinsic motivation comes from autonomy, mastery and purpose. When you have autonomy you feel like you can direct your own life. To have autonomy you must take responsibility for your career success and life fulfillment. Mastery means you are constantly striving to become a better lawyer knowing you will never achieve total mastery. Purpose means you are working on client matters that are meaningful, doing them well and doing your work for a purpose greater than yourself.
Pink tells a story about finding purpose. In 1962, Clare Booth Luce met with President Kennedy about his diffuse priorities. “A great man,” she advised him, “is one sentence.” President Lincoln’s sentence was obvious: “He preserved the union and freed the slaves.” So was FDR’s: “He lifted us out of a great depression and helped us win a world war.” What, Luce challenged President Kennedy, was to be his sentence?
- Take responsibility for your career,
- Work every day to become a better lawyer and find ways to better serve clients and
- Focus on the journey, not the destination. In other words, focus on the joy that helping clients achieve their goals bring you rather than focusing on pay, bonuses or promotion,
- Finally, decide what is your sentence.
by Warren Greshes. The book title doesn’t do the book justice because the principles in the book are broader than sales.
and 
I began to plan my week around my roles: Father, Son, Husband, Brother, Practice Group Leader, Practicing Lawyer, Client Developer, Sunday School Teacher and Youth Group Leader. Based on Covey's advice, each week I wrote down the most important activity I could do in each role. 
. It is really quite enlightening.
so I enjoyed Chris Brogan's video book review.
. In the first chapter the authors tell us that 
is about helping us change things and dealing with the challenges that make change difficult. I think you will enjoy reading the first chapter as it explains why change is difficult. Since coaching is about helping others change, I plan to read the book.
I want to welcome 
.
