Exercise 2 What motivates me?
Most people don’t know their passion. At least people need time to develop a passion. So, passion comes after you try something, discover that you like it, and develop mastery – not before. Passion is the result of good career planning, not the cause. So we are looking for tools to have a life that works for us, a life that makes sense. A meaningful work adds to your mental health so much. Some people find their passion in a hobby or voluntary work and their paid employment just pays the rent. Some other people are willing to make other sacrifices in order to have a career they love.
In an job interview question "what motivates you" means you have to shed light on what your best moments at work are, when you are really looking forward to a working day and when you came home from work feeling energetic and enthusiastic of all you and your team did.
There are several sources of career satisfaction, e.g. external motivation (compensation, feedback, incentives, support, participation, power etc.) and internal motivation (the content, challenge and meaningfulness of work, diversity of tasks, self-actualization, learning, development etc.)
The exercises below help you to find words for you motives and interests. Completing the two exercises will take 30 - 45 minutes.
Exercises
1) Write down three things or areas in life (studies, projects, work or hobbies) which interest you and inspire you to progress at the moment. Find as many things as possible that arouse great passion, eager interest and love of doing something for its own sake.
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2) Write down the three least interesting things in life:
What do these answers tell you? Which motivators are important to you, attract you and help you succeed?
Why are you studying the least interesting areas? Could you skip some of them or find another attitude to be able to focus on them?
How do you spend your time and money? What does that say about your values?
Everyone has a particular orientation towards work. We all approach our work with certain values and priorities, set of priority and values. Edgar Schein, one of the founders of organizational psychology, calls this concept our Career Anchors. A Career Anchor is a combination of perceived areas of competence, motives, and values relating to professional work choices.
Understanding your Career Anchors will help you to determine what you are good at, what you value and what motivates you and what kind of personal development is needed to find a suitable job.
Take the questionnaire and reflect your choices. How do your choices show in your future plans?
Additional material
What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, if you're not sure you want to do just one thing for the rest of your life, you're not alone. In this illuminating talk, writer and artist Emilie Wapnick describes the kind of people she calls "multipotentialites" -- who have a range of interests and jobs over one lifetime. Are you one?
Daniel H. Pink gives an animation lesson about what motivates us in working life. What do you think about his arguments? Do you agree or disagree?