What makes a goal motivating? Today, we’ll talk about a really simple way of understanding motivation. When you think of your goals, how much do you trust yourself to execute your plan This is called self-efficacy, and it plays one of the most important roles in motivation.

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Self-efficacy is the belief that you have the ability to succeed. People who have self-efficacy see themselves in the driver’s seat of their life. They understand that there are outside factors that influence them, but they feel that they have ultimate control over their what happens in their life.

The value of your goal depends on two things: How important is the outcome and how likely is it to happen? Take a gambling analogy. Your goal is the jackpot. How motivated you are depends on the size of the jackpot. You’ll try harder to win a million dollars than you would to win 10 dollars. The bigger and more meaningful your goal, the more motivated you’ll be to pursue it. 

But probability is also important. How likely are you to win? If you knew there was literally a 0.00% chance of winning a million dollars, it would mean nothing to you. Even the compulsive gambler could stay away from that bet. But once the probability increases above 0%, the bet suddenly has value. As the chance of winning increases, you become more and more motivated to place a bet or buy a lottery ticket. The total value of your goal depends on these two factors: How important is the outcome and what chance do you have to get it?

This is why self-efficacy is so important. It influences your perceived chance of winning. Self-efficacy is entirely subjective. The gambler will be motivated to buy lottery tickets because they FEEL that they have a good chance of winning. The actual chance of winning has nothing to do with it. You’re motivated by how you feel, not by what you know. If I feel relatively certain I can win the lottery, I’m going to play, regardless of the actual chance of winning. 

So this is your motivation in a nutshell: “What do you want to get from taking this action?” and “What chance do you have of actually getting it?”

The belief in your own ability is what motivates you to pursue your goals. Without it, it doesn’t matter what the jackpot is. It doesn’t matter how important your goals are or how famous or rich you want to become. If you multiply any number by zero, you still end up with zero. All creativity needs is a meaningful goal and the belief that it’s attainable. When motivation is in place, creativity is bound to follow. Without it, you find yourself in a constant struggle with procrastination.

Innovators and artists are always risking time, energy, and acceptance when they create something new. In fact, we’ll be talking about risk taking next week. Self-efficacy is what allows creative people to push past setbacks and overcome the hurdles. There are a ton of ways that you can influence your own self-efficacy, but those will have to wait for a future show. 

As your creating today, think about how your self-efficacy changes throughout a project. Notice how it changes with each task placed in front of you. When you feel a dip in motivation, take a hard look at what you’re doing. Often, the easiest way to get self-efficacy back is to simplify the problem or create smaller, intermediate goals between you and your long term goals.

You cannot control everything that happens, but it’s important to see yourself as the one in the driver’s seat. There will be accidents on the road. There will be construction that blocks your way. You, yourself, will make some wrong turns. But we get in the car anyway. Not because we know every single thing that’ll happen on the road, but because we trust ourselves to handle whatever comes ups. We should treat our creativity the same way.

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