My jaw hit the table.
I was working on my dissertation this past weekend. I was about 20 layers deep in my literature review when I decided to look up a term I hadn’t seen before.
Then I saw this picture.
It hit me like a whack on the side of the head.
I could see the past 12 years of my life in one image.
More importantly, I could put words to why my motivation flags from time to time.
The image lays out like an easy-to-read formula. Movitation equals Expectancy times Instrumentality times Valence. While these last 3 terms in the formula are a little too academic, they are easy to understand when we call them by different names.
Expectancy – If I put in effort, I expect to see results. If I push a working lawn mower across my yard, I expect it to cut the grass.
Instrumentality – Mowing the grass will win me the respect of my neighbors. A little more difficult to control. Here, having a good looking lawn is just a vehicle, an instrument, to get me what I really want.
Valence – Also known as the big picture goal. My neighbors will vote my yard as Best Lawn of the Neighborhood. Now I feel good about my self. Respected by my peers.
For me, a great deal of my motivation comes from valence. I want the big picture. I want to pursue my purpose, bring some kind of change to the way we look at work, make a difference in people’s lives. This is what gets me started on my journey every morning.
Problem is that I often don’t know exactly how I’m going to do that.
My expectancy is off. Way off.
When it comes to the nuts and bolts of growing my business I could choose from any one of a hundred things to get clients and speaking engagements. When I pick one of those ideas, and things don’t work out, I begin cartwheeling into the land of uncertainty and low self-confidence.
As entrepreneurs most of us pursue a picture that we have of what our business should look like at some point in the future. It will be a certain size, employ (or not employ) a certain number of people, be located in this part of town… You get the idea.
Yet, most of us have little idea how we are going to do all that.
In order to grow your revenue this quarter you might plunk down some money on an ad campaign in the local coupon mailer pack. You might join a networking group. You might take a class on public speaking.
And when the mailer, and the networking group, and the class all amount to nothing, you pull back.
This picture was such an eye-opener for me because, in my early years, I was in a cycle of false starts. I wanted to do public speaking. I wanted to make a difference, but I couldn’t get the first two parts of the formula to line up for me. It wasn’t necessarily about knowing how to dial a phone and ask for a speaking gig. It was deeper than that.
I didn’t know how to form a core message. I didn’t know how to dig deep to articulate my big “why”.
Without this core to my message, I feared I would end up just another talking head. Just one more guy who needs to be seen on a stage…any stage.
Even though I knew I still needed to hone my core message, I would pound forward anyway. Get a few speaking gigs. Most of them went really well…but something was missing. The core.
My motivation flagged, and I would pull back from speaking for a while to let things gel.
Now here I am years later. I had put speaking “on hold” for some time. Ok, a long time. I had put it on hold for so long that I had for all purposes forgotten that I wanted to make a big impact on people’s lives. Then, a long series of events (which I will cover at another time) led me to a point where I saw what I felt were some pretty serious injustices with regard to entrepreneurs. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but was powerless to really do anything about it.
At that point, so far from shore, so far from practically everything that meant safety and security to me, I found my core message.
It has made all the difference.
Now the expectancy part is dialed in.
The instrumentality is working.
The valence is headed up.
My motivation is increasing. Big time.