When the motivation is present, we often do not experience it. Then emotions such as joy and excitement fill us. The absence of motivation in our lives is often the absence of a motive, goal, or meaning. It happens when we do not find joy in what we are or do. By looking at our opportunities, we can rediscover what gives us the feeling of joy and gratitude. Learn to use those discoveries as a catalyst for your motivation.

In the middle of a time of lockdown, several of the words in the headline can be perceived by many as distant and far from realistic. For example, joy and motivation. The lack of motivation or the presence of motivation was every day for 15% who did not feel motivated at all or to a lesser extent by their work. That was in April 2020 (In Danish Videncenter for arbejdslyst. Klik her og scroll lidt ned til rapporten: “Analyse: Trivsel og arbejdslyst i en corona-tid”). Still on the threshold of a new year, where new, exciting goals and New Year’s resolutions are to be fulfilled, motivation can be both present and absent.

Motivation is present when it is absent.

When the drive and the spark are gone, we are often aware that our motivation is running low. Similarly, when our motivation is high, then consciousness is centered on other moods and emotions. Joy and enthusiasm are some of which we experience.

Being motivated creates space for experiences of having influence, seeing meaning, having a motive. Having a room with options.

Find your joy

Motivation can be described as an inner stimulus towards an action. There is something or someone that motivates us to do something. In the same way, someone or something can also demotivate us. For the time being, the place where we ourselves can try to strengthen the motivation in our life is by looking at our space of opportunity.

These are not dreams or opportunities that are linked to a series of if or when. Look realistically at what you are and do in your everyday life as it looks right now.

Is it hard to see where you are contributing or having an impact? Where do you get the joy from? So, take a friend or colleague on a walk (or online) and take a closer look at what you do.

Your conversation partner can see you and your actions from the outside and can put other words to the options you have. See other doors in your particular space of opportunity that you may already be using without being aware of it or finding new doors and paths you can walk along. All to find or rediscover what gives you joy.

Stop and take it into your heart as an inner catalyst. That is some advice I would like to pass on. Along with that comes a few ideas on how you can use a partner to find your joy.

Get together to turn on the motivation

When we find what gives us joy in life – big or small. When we have moments of gratitude, then we have the spark to ignite the motivation. Our inner joy becomes a catalyst.

The goal is to find the things that motivate you. This is done by looking at situations where you have experienced joy or the opposite.

This is the journey which you and your partner are going on. Here you get some simple guidelines for how it can be done – whether you do it together or online.

Roles – One of you talks about his/her work and life. It can be both event from now and before the corona. It can be five to seven different situations which have left an impression and where motivation and joy have been absent and present, respectively.

The other one listens, is curious and asks open-ended questions starting e.g. with ‘what’. Keep the two roles separate, you can switch roles later.

Learning – Stories can also be filled with adversity. Even in those stories, you as a listener can try to shed light on the learnings and experiences that the narrator may not see.

Emotions – Although you may ask questions beginning with what, the focus is not so much on what happened as what the narrator felt in relation to what happened.

Write down both emotions and learnings along the way. Once you have been through the stories, there will probably be some themes or common threads that show where joy can be a catalyst for your motivation.

Stop and take in the joy – use the motivation