Don't Dive Into Setting Goals Too Fast! Make Sure You WANT Them.

Before you jump into setting big goals for the future, it’s important to make sure you're setting goals you actually want to work on and achieve.

If you’re setting bold goals that you don’t truly want to make happen or put effort towards, you’ll waste a lot of energy, joy, and time - and feel twice as frustrated should you fail to achieve them (or unsatisfied and empty if you do).

Don’t go after goals that you feel you “should” - go after what you truly “want.”

To see your boldest ideas come to life and become the creator or entrepreneur you know you can be, you need to tap into and amplify your authentic motivation.

With clearer and stronger motivation you simply will be more energized, focused, persistent, and resilient.

You will face obstacles, challenges, and the unexpected. If your motivation is shallow, forced, or disingenuous, you won’t make it.

Let’s ensure your motivation is authentic and goes deep.

The 3 Types of Motivation You Need to Design For

There are 3 types of motivation to think about when designing your creative vision and goals:

• Intrinsic - what authentically energizes and enlivens you (e.g. your passions, curiosities, inspirations, strengths, sources of flow, values). 
• Prosocial - the impact you want to make on other people, your industry, or your community.
• Extrinsic - the recognition, rewards, respect, accolades, or money that others give to you for your creative work and goal achievement.

Which of these fuel you most?

How clear and strong is your motivation in each of these areas?

The best way to start getting clear on what truly matters most to you and why is to ask yourself powerful questions that uncover your authentic sources of motivation.

👇Grab your free copy of Bigger, Better, Bolder below so that you can journal out your responses to the questions below.

Then meet me back here to dive deeper into these three sources of motivation

Grab Your Free Copy of Bigger, Better, Bolder so that you can begin taking action on bringing your biggest ideas to life, today.👇

1 - Amplify Your Intrinsic Motivation

Start with amplifying your intrinsic motivation. clarifying your passions, curiosities, strengths, and your values - they will serve as the building blocks to your bold creative vision.

You start here because this is the purest source of motivation - if your intrinsic motivation is high, you will enjoy what you are doing and keep going with it no matter what impact you are making or how people are reacting.

Give yourself time and space to reflect on these questions below:

Identify and Amplify Your Passions & Joy

Ask Yourself...

• What brings me joy?
• What excites me?
• When am I having the most fun?
• What do I love?
• What am I absolutely obsessed with?
• What did I love to do when I was a kid?  What did I want to do when I grew up?
• What could I spend hours learning more about, experimenting with, and doing that would feel like play instead of work?

*As you reflect, go even deeper and ask yourself “Why?” after each question as well.

Identify and Amplify Your Curiosities

Ask Yourself...

• What am I curious about?
• What topics do I love learning about?
• What do I want to learn more about next
• What skills do I want to develop?

Identify and Amplify Your Inspirations

Ask Yourself...

• Who do I admire most?
• Who inspires me?
• Who are my role models?
• Who are my top 3 creative influences?
• What types of stories inspire me most?
• Who do I most enjoy spending time around or with?
• Who do I most want to help?  What are their goals? Their challenges?

Identify and Amplify Your Strengths

Ask Yourself...

• What are my strengths and talents?
• What am I doing when I feel most energized or engaged?
• What am I “a natural” at?
• What have other people told me I am great at?
• What have I done well in the past that I didn’t need explained to me?
• When in the past have I felt “in the zone” or “on fire”?

*Note: To discover or validate your Strengths, you can also use formal strengths assessments, backed by comprehensive scientific research:

• Values-In-Action (VIA) - free!
• Gallup CliftonStrengths - for a fee.

If you decide to take one of these assessments, send me your results and I can help debrief you on what they mean (and don’t mean) as well as how to best put them into action.

Identify and Amplify Your Strengths

Using the list of values on the next pages, choose two values that you hold most important – the beliefs that matter most to you - that help you find your way in the dark, and that fill you with a feeling of purpose.

You’ll most likely want to choose 10, but it’s important to select just two because if everything on the list is important to you, then nothing is truly a driver.

When selecting your values, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this define me?
• Is this who I am at my best?
• Is this the filter that I use to make hard decisions?
• Do I put this into practice (and not just profess this)?

You might start by circling all that resonate and then going back through those to work out which are really your values. Your core values are where all of the ‘second tier’ circled values are tested. For example, you might truly value reliability but have a hard time not choosing family because that also feels like a value to you. However, the value of reliability is present in the way that you show up for your family.

Our values should be so crystallized in our minds, so clear and precise that they don’t feel like a choice – they are simply the definition of who we are in our lives. Try to resist selecting words representing things you’d like to be, should be, or have just been coached to be. This is about who you are.

You’ll find a list of values next and space to write your own if you don’t find yours in the list.

2 - Connect with Your Prosocial Motivation

Next, connect to your prosocial motivation.

This is the impact you want to make on other people, your industry, or your community.

Prosocial motivation will elevate your drive to bring your biggest ideas to life - if you dial it in authentically. And it will help you come up with ideas, products, and services that are more useful to others.

Give yourself time and space to reflect on these questions below. Journal your responses. Be mindful of any patterns or themes you are noticing.

Ask Yourself...

• Who do I WANT to serve, influence, or impact? (NOT “who should I” serve)
• What impact on others do I want to make?
• How do I want to help other people?
• What contribution do I want to make to my community?
• What legacy do I want to leave?

3 - Align Your Extrinsic Motivation

Last, it’s time to align your intrinsic motivation and prosocial motivation to extrinsic sources of motivation.

But first, a bit of a warning.

Doing things solely for fame, recognition, or money will likely not be enough to create consistent momentum and success with your creative or entrepreneurial goals.

Creative work is just too complex and challenging to not have intrinsic and prosocial motivation sources - and if you are solely focused on the extrinsic, your creative work will likely not be very creative, original, or unique anyways.

Also, relying on extrinsic motivation can sometimes actually “contaminate” your deeper sources of motivation.

If you spend too much time focused on extrinsic motivation sources, it could more frequently trigger negative self-talk and limiting beliefs (e.g. “I am not good enough, what if they don’t like it?, what if they reject me? etc”).

⚡️At the same time, if your intrinsic and prosocial sources of motivation are dialed in and authentic (and they will be if you thoughtfully went through the previous questions), you can align your extrinsic sources of motivation to further deepen your motivational well.

It’s perfectly fine and positive to want money, respect, and recognition - and you deserve these things as well as a creator or entrepreneur.

For example, I’m looking to win a Grammy for Children’s Music. It’s not my primary motivator (having fun, being creative, capturing moments of my son’s life, and creating something my son loves, are my main intrinsic and prosocial motivators) - but it adds an extra motivational factor into the mix that strengthens my drive and helps me to focus on what next strategies & actions to take in the future.

To better align your sources of motivation, seek out opportunities to connect them.

For example:

• “If I have more fame and recognition… I can reach more people and have a bigger impact on their lives. I can do bigger and bolder creative projects. I get more opportunities to grow and do different types of creative work…etc.”
• “If I have more money… I can bring bolder, more complex creative projects to life. And this will fuel my personal growth and learning. And bring more impact and value to my community/audience.”

Ok, now let’s identify and align your extrinsic sources of motivation as well…

Ask Yourself...

• What types of recognition are important to me?
• What indicators or markers of advancement are there in my industry that are important to me (e.g. promotions, job titles, certifications, degrees, etc)
• How might more money, more recognition, more fame, more rewards, etc. supercharge my intrinsic and prosocial sources of motivation?
• Are there any awards or accolades in my industry that would be exciting to be nominated for (and win)?

4 - Looking Back, Looking Forward

Let’s synthesize and amplify things even further.

It’s time to look back to evaluate how you’ve been doing, as well as look forward to the next year (and beyond) and what changes you’d like to make.

You could look at things holistically or you could also apply the following questions to each specific sub-section above.

Looking Back...

• How intentionally did I live your life last year (as it relates to your authentic sources of motivation)? How would I rate this on a 1-10 scale?
• In what areas did I feel aligned with what matters most to you?
• In what areas did I feel out of alignment?
• If I could go back in time and do the year over, what would I do differently?

Looking Forward...

• What sources of motivation would I like to tap into more next year?
• What is important for me to continue or maintain next year?
• What is important for me to stop next year?
• What does an authentically motivating life look and feel like to me next year?
• How could I creatively combine my authentic motivations?
• How else could I be more intentional?
• What do I want to commit to?

Lot's to reflect on here - but slowing down to do so could save you A LOT of potentially wasted time and energy in the future.

Take the time to reflect and amplify your deepest sources of authentic motivation so that you can draw upon them in the future when navigating the challenges and complexities of your creative journey.

Read more in this series on reigniting your motivation and designing a purposeful creative vision:

• Overview: Bigger, Bolder, Better: The Annual Reflection Guide for Designing Your Best Year Yet
• 🎛 Part I: Dial in and Amplify Your Deepest Sources of Motivation
• 🎯 Part II: Define your Creative Vision for the Next Year
• 📈 Part III: Strategies to Actually Make It All Happen

Grab Your Free Copy of Bigger, Better, Bolder so that you can begin taking action on bringing your biggest ideas to life, today.👇