Find, Filter and Focus: What is motivation?

Why you do things, what drives you to do things and what makes you want to do things repeatedly are all very much the same.  As a designer, you can have an instant idea that is then thought through and carried out and proven successful. You can also have instant outcomes that are more commonly known as accidental successes that work more on the fact they are a fluke rather than having any intellect behind them. Though behind all of these ideas, accidental or not there is the motivation to find or come across them in the first place.

Motivation. A subject that until the last few months I thought I knew the definition of. The definition is considered as “a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way” though I feel desire to do something should also come into the equation. We can and all have been motivated at some point – but the challenge really comes into play when this motivation has to last a lengthy period of time. This lengthy period of time will ultimately vary between people and some may consider weeks of time to be lengthy whereas other may consider months or years – it is something that is put into perspective when you consider the subject in which you need to be motivated. When you are considering the rest of your life – your job or you career, you are considering a particularly long period of time. Can you be motivated to design for this long period of time?  What pushes you to get up every day and design? To be creative, to be thinking of exciting things and pushing new boundaries every day can be exhausting unless you really have factors driving your passion.

I believe motivation has two fields that work in conjunction to it; the factors that work with it and the factors that work against it.  The factors that work with motivation can come in both physical and emotional forms – whether it be those around you that encourage you or the reward of the end result.  The far more difficult factors are those than can hinder your passion. Again, I believe they come in both physical and emotional forms – when the people around you have a negative approach to what you are doing, are derogatory towards your work and are unsupportive in your passion it can prove a struggle to find your motivation. Although it is usually said what knocks you down makes you stronger, when it is a constant factor around you it can be draining. When the reward seems unreachable it can be down heartening and de-motivating.

Whether you are in a creative field or not you will accept the notion that for every success there are multiple knock backs. At these times it is your motivation that keeps you going. It really is a test on your passion and self discipline when your motivation and reasons and desires are negatively challenged. How are you meant to cope with a difficult situation or set back when what drives you to keep going is also tested?

This is what starts to set designers apart – having the drive and determination to keep going even when the elements that inspire you to design are tested is a skill that sets people apart. The passion you have to design is there for a reason – some will say it is instilled in you and therefore you can be the only one to really let go of it.