Motivation & Goals
In this category, you will find all our science-based articles on motivation, self-determination theory, goal-setting and modalities like motivational interviewing.
Download 3 Free Goals Exercises (PDF)
These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques for lasting behavior change.
Goal-Setting: 20 Templates & Worksheets for Achieving Goals
We all have goals, some big, some small, some safe, and some bold. We wish to become a painter, to move to a new house, [...]
21 Self-Determination Skills and Activities to Utilize Today
How do we move ourselves and others to act? It all hinges on motivation. People are often motivated to act by external influences, be they [...]
The Science of Improving Motivation at Work
All motivation comes from within, whether it is triggered by rewards or endeavors that enhance our self-image or intrinsically motivating activities that we engage in [...]
How to Motivate Someone, Including Yourself
We all seem to know how to live well, yet few of us can bring ourselves actually to do it. Many proposed motivational strategies routinely [...]
Motivation in Education: What It Takes to Motivate Our Kids
Bored or stressed, they are simply our kids. Many traditional public schools do not offer much in terms of autonomy nor allow students to learn [...]
20 Most Popular Theories of Motivation in Psychology
To describe the indescribable seems to be the ambitious undertaking of motivation theories. The many approaches to defining what drives human behavior are best understood [...]
17 Motivational Interviewing Questions and Skills
Have you ever been “healed” by a long conversation with someone where you were given full attention and felt the other person really listened to [...]
The Vital Importance and Benefits of Motivation
Being passive is not our default mode as human beings. Otherwise, we would have been born as a sloth or a panda bear (no offense [...]
How to Measure Motivation According to Positive Psychology
Motivation is a psychological force that enables action and has long been the object of scientific inquiry (Carver & Scheier, 1998). The study of motivation [...]
What is Motivation? A Psychologist Explains
Motivation has as many faces as there are human desires. The simplest definition of motivation boils down to wanting (Baumeister, 2016). We want a change [...]