Goal Motivation Theory

Understanding How To Increase Your Goals Motivation

Welcome to the Goal Motivation Theory page. This web site is about setting and achieving personal goals. To see more goals articles please go to our achieve your personal goals or setting goals pages.

Goal motivation theory is based on the idea that all our actions are based on logical reasons - logical to us at any rate.

Let's start this review of goal motivation theory by examining the link between your goals and your motives. Gary Ryan Blair pictures the anatomy of goals as a triangle. The three points of the triangle stand for what why and how.

The what is your goal. So let's say that you have a goal to write a book and get it published by 31 December next.

The why is your motive for getting this book published. Maybe it's for the money, maybe it's more a question of personal fulfilment.

The how is the method by which you'll achieve the goal. So you'll need to have a plan for writing the book and a plan for finding a publisher.

Here's the key point: the why is the most important. Goal motivation theory says that we only achieve goals to satisfy our motives. We achieve the what as a means to an end - and that end is taking care of our why. Gary Ryan Blair suggests that for every goal we set we need at least three 'why's'. If we don't have a strong enough list of why's we simply won't have strong enough motivation to acheive the goal.

So what sort of why might we have in terms of goal motivation theory? Essentially there are two categories of why: pain and pleasure. In Awaken The Giant Within, Anthony Robbins says that "Everything you and I do, we do either out of our need to avoid pain or our desire to gain pleasure".

So my suggestion is that you identify the pain and pleasure associated with any goal you set. In fact, when you write your goal down, I suggest you also write down your pain and pleasure motives. Naturally the motives you identify must be important to you. You can't get motivated for someone else's reasons.

Let's continue the example of writing and publishing a book. Maybe the writer doesn't like life as an employee and thinks that getting a book published would allow them to leave their job - thus moving away from the pain. Perhaps also they would like to move towards the pleasure (as they see it) of seeing their book in the local bookshop.

One final point. Some people seem to get more drive from moving towards pleasure, and others from moving away from pain. Generally speaking though, pain motives appear to be stronger motive for most people.

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