I had once asked some of my friends – Does success lead to motivation or motivation leads to success? The discussion went round and round. Everyone had a view and all the reasons were relevant.

There is no clear answer, considering that motivation and success may mean different things to different people. Also, it’s clearly cyclical – without success there cannot be motivation, and without motivation there cannot be success. The classical chicken and egg syndrome.

When I talk of motivation, it’s not limited to motivation at workplace. It’s motivation that enables our daily existence. Motivation in every day life. My explanation of motivation comes from observation, introspection and in-depth conversation with professionals about their success, failures, etc.

Motivation: An outcome of 3 stages of being

Aspire > Act > Achieve

These stages are intrinsic, are closer to one’s own self, and are led by ones Awareness.

While each of the above stages of being, can impact an individual’s motivation, they lead to a magical and un-stoppable performance when they stay in sync, like well-oiled machinery. When all these elements keep working as an on-going routine, we exceed our own expectations. We do just awesome.

When either of these stages of being is lost, there is always an opportunity for the cycle of motivation to break, slow down or gradually stop.

If you need to motivate your team – allow them a dream; either enable them to dream or give them a dream – that’s “Aspire”, direct or enable them to “Act”, and join in to celebrate the thrill of “Achieve”.

If you need to motivate yourself – give yourself a dream – “Aspire”, work on whatever makes you happy – “Act”, and celebrate success in form of whatever comes your way – “Achieve”.

As I said earlier, if all these work in tandem as a well-oiled machinery, it’s good; else let any of these to take off – to start with. For example, even if you give a pass to “Aspire” stage, and have not seen “Achieve” for some time – but if you are consistent with the “Act” stage – the thrill of working will itself lead to motivation, thereby, bringing you closer to “Achieve” and “Aspire” stage over a period of time.

Also published on LinkedIn