Environment, The Third Factor of Self Motivation

The third factor of self motivation is environment. This recognizes that your environment plays a large part in how motivated you are. Your environment can increase your motivation, or it can decrease your motivation. It’s up to you, because ultimately you control your environment.

In my book, Motivate Yourself, I tell about a wonderful speech my friend Mykassa Dixon made at a Toastmasters speech contest. (Mykassa won). Mykassa’s speech was about Mr. Bouncy Ball. Mykassa actually had a ball with him on the speaking platform and bounced it onto the floor which was about a foot lower. Mykassa explained how the in order for the ball to bounce back it had to bounce on the right environment. If he tried to bounce it on sand, for example, that would be the wrong environment; it would not bounce back. Mykassa had shared with the audience a major disappointment he had experienced and was explaining how he was able to bounce back from that disappointment, with the proper environment.

In my model for self motivation, I go one step further than Mykassa did. I believe in order to do anything, not just bounce back, we need to have the right environment.

What’s interesting about Mykassa’s speech, as it relates to self motivation, is that the speech itself, on the surface, is talking about physical environment, the ball won’t bounce back on sand or on water, but it will bounce back on wood or cement. The physical environment in his speech, however is actually a metaphor for the people in his environment; the support, understanding and encouragement they give him help him to bounce back from his major disappointment.

What makes this interesting is that when we deal with environment in self motivation, we are dealing with both our physical environment, the place where we pursue our vision, and our social environment, the people we surround ourselves with on our journey. Both types of environment can have a major impact on our motivation.