Question

People flourish when they are in a state of optimal well-being or flow. When people find pleasure at work, they inevitably achieve and maintain excellence in their workplace performance. In fact, if you interview peak performers in any field, you will inevitably discover they gain tremendous pleasure from what they do.

What activities are you intrinsically motivated to do that involve using your personal strengths and flow experiences?

How could you change your work place behaviors, interactions and activities so that you engaged in more intrinsically motivated activities that involve using those strengths and flow experiences? Be creative - even small changes can make enormous differences.

What would be the costs and the benefits of making these changes?

Answer 1

What activities are you intrinsically motivated to do that involve using your personal strengths and flow experiences?

When intrinsically motivated, I feel like working in a more motivated manner. A person when motivated intrinsically, does his works for his own sake and not for the sake of any rewards. Some of these activities are carried out since the outcome from these activities are what a person likes. For example, a person likes to dance or sing or draw not because someone has asked them to or not because they have been told that they would be paid. Rather there is internalisation of thoughts.

Personally, when I’m intrinsically motivated, I tend to take a day or two off from work and like to paint as a hobby. It keeps me happy and relieves from any stress that I might have had, keeping me motivated at the same time. Even if I would think that I have lost some confidence in my work, I resort to painting, to revisit my strengths and boost up the confidence get back to work with increased zeal.