Let's Think About It Podcast

7 Levels of Motivation: Elevating Your Energy for Peak Performance

• Morice Mabry • Season 1 • Episode 8

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In this latest episode, Coach Mo takes us through the seven levels of motivation, delving into the intricate interplay between energy levels and the drive for success. Uncover the dynamics of catabolic and anabolic energies, learning to harness them to fuel your passion and enhance productivity. Dive into the psychological currents shaping motivations, addressing energy blocks that hinder progress. From navigating tough conversations to achieving peak motivational energy, discover insights on mastering emotional responses and turning conflicts into cooperative successes. The episode also introduces the Energy Leadership Index Assessment, a tool for leaders to assess motivational energy in various situations. Tune in for this empowering discussion, leaving you with a renewed sense of purpose and a clearer path to your goals. 🚀🎙️✨

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the let's Think About it Podcast, where we embark on a journey of thoughtfulness and personal growth. I'm your host, coach Moe, and I'm here to guide you through thought-promoking discussions that will inspire you to unlock your full potential. In each episode, we'll explore a wide range of topics, from self-discovery and mindfulness to goal-setting and achieving success. Together, we'll challenge conventional thinking and dive deep into the realms of possibility. Whether you're looking to find clarity in your personal or professional life, or seeking strategies to overcome obstacles, this podcast is your go-to source for insightful conversations and practical advice. So find a comfortable spot, chill and let's embark on this journey of self-improvement together. Remember, the power of transformation lies within you, and together we'll uncover the tools and insights you need to make it happen. So let's dive in. Welcome to another episode of the let's Think About it podcast. I'm your host, coach Moe, and today I have another exciting topic that I want to touch on, and I want to talk about motivation, the seven levels of motivation, and I think this is really important, because how we show up every day really generates certain motivation cues. I want to just start to spread some light on how that looks and what that is as it pertains to our motivation factors. So let's jump right in. When we show up, we all have these different viewpoints of just how we see the world, and that viewpoint is really starts to be shaped by our past experiences, our family dynamics, our social economics, marital status, education just all of these different factors influence how we see various situations. But what does that really have to start to do with motivation and I'm going to get to that in a second but let's start with understanding energy, and our energy is what really starts to influence our motivation. So there's two types of energies that I want to tap into calabatic energy and this antibiotic energy, and what I'm going to share with you around these energies is how it influence these seven levels of energy that makes up our motivation.

Speaker 1:

So let's break down calabatic energy first. Calabatic energy is this type of energy when you feel drained, you feel unmotivated, you feel like something is constantly just pulling energy away from you, and it's connected to various types of emotions. So when you feel, think about it. When you feel disappointed, when you feel angry, when you feel sad, when you feel overwhelmed, when you feel helpless, when you feel sad, when you feel discouraged, fear, anxiety all of these contribute towards that calabatic energy which it consistently starts to drain us. But then, on the flip side, is antibiotic energy. Antibiotic energy is a more fueling type energy. It's when you feel excited, it's when you feel synergized, it's when you feel encouraged, motivated, optimistic. All of that contributes to antibiotic energy. Well, what does that have to do with our motivation? So think about just various kinds.

Speaker 1:

When you've been most successful and you felt the success coming on, you felt the momentum of the success happening as it. You know, in that moment, what was your energy like? Was it fueling Because? Did you feel kind of motivated? Did you feel encouraged? Did you feel inspired, happy in that moment, and feeling that you're experiencing antibiotic energy.

Speaker 1:

On the flip side, again, when you talk about feeling discouraged, disappointed, embarrassed, anger, you feel a little drained in those moments. Just that moment. Think of it in that moment, because we're talking about energy and energy is very volatile, right? And feeling drained in that moment because you're triggered by a disappointment, something that happened. It all comes from a certain viewpoint and how you're experiencing that situation that generates this type of overwhelming, draining, tight feeling. And in that moment, that moment itself, you're experiencing antibiotic energy.

Speaker 1:

And when antibiotic energy is present, your normal how you show up as a normal person. Right, it gets blocked and I call that energy blocks. And there's four types of energy blocks there's limiting beliefs, there's interpretations, there's assumptions and then there's this inner voice is constantly chirping negativity in your mind and I like to call that the gremlins. Limiting belief is when something is limiting your thoughts in certain situations that makes you feel like it's not worth trying. You've been here, done that before. That's how limiting beliefs really start to show up.

Speaker 1:

And when you're talking about an assumption, you're assuming that because something has happened in the past, it's going to happen again. And because it's happened in the past, you may not be as encouraged to move forward because of a certain experience. And that's where fear a lot of times is present, because you're trying to project out a dynamic that's going to happen, that hasn't happened yet and you're assuming, based on your previous experience, that it will happen again and you limit yourself in how you show up. Interpretations, on the other hand, is when you have a certain judgment and a story that you're telling yourself about a certain dynamic and you believe it to be true and you consistently show up, believe in the story, looking for evidence to validate the story that you're telling yourself and because you believe that story is true, you're not going to put yourself out there. You're going to be protective of the situation and you're just totally limited in that moment. And that's how interpretation comes up right.

Speaker 1:

When we talk about remnant, it's that constant voice in our head that's chirping, is chirping and it's saying you're not getting enough, you're stupid, you're a failure. Why even put yourself out there? All they're going to do is laugh at you. That's a dumb question. Don't bring that up. What are they going to think of you if you think that? What if you ask this question? What are they really going to think about you? Don't do it, so you're just staying small. You're staying small in those moments and that's how the gremlin gets us right, and we all experience this. That's the thing.

Speaker 1:

What I'm trying to do today is create awareness that when those four energy blocks are present, it affects our motivation, and there's seven levels of motivation that I'm going to describe to you today. But when you hear me talk about energy blocks, I like to describe them as gales. Okay, the g is gremlins, the a is assumptions, the I is interpretations and the l is limiting beliefs. Acronym gale okay, doesn't matter which gale is present, but when we start to feel unmotivated, when we start to feel discouraged, when we start to feel overwhelmed, when we start to feel anxiety, depressed, frustrated, afraid, doubtful, just in those moments a gale is present. One of them is present and the real question is how motivated are you to move away from that feeling in that moment? And that's the indicator. When you don't feel good in a certain situation, that's how you can identify that a gale is present.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let's talk about the seven levels of motivation, because I set the platform with antibiotic energy and catabolic energy Ultimately influences seven levels of motivation, and what I'm going to do now is I'm going to take a moment to break down each of the seven levels, starting with level one. So, level one of motivation I characterize it as zero to low, like no motivation to very low motivation is considered level one of motivation. So think of it like this, and I'm going to put it in the perspective of managing upward dynamics in the workplace, and you're a manager or you are a career professional who has to have certain conversations with upper management. Let's just kind of take that, for example, because I want to help put this in a better context and how you can relate to this. So the seven levels of motivation starts at level one. Level one represents no motivation to very low motivation.

Speaker 1:

At this level the leader or the career professional they avoid difficult conversations because of fear, guilt, self doubt, worry, anxiety or feeling embarrassed. These feelings don't create much motivation and generates perception that the conversation will be difficult to execute. At level one, you have this thought and a limiting belief or a gail is present and because that gail is present, your feelings don't create any type of motivation and the perception is in your mind is difficult to have this conversation because of this judgment that's present. You literally have no trust in a situation. You have no motivation in a situation. There might be a self-trust or self-esteem issues. You're creating excuses to avoid the conversation. It's highly present. Anxiety may exist, with feelings that are constant. Weight is on our shoulders.

Speaker 1:

Think of a situation when you had to have a difficult conversation when it was with your spouse at work. Think of it from that viewpoint and you kept playing how it was going to play out in your mind over and over, trying to figure out how you're going to have this conversation. And in that moment and thinking through this. There was some worry. You kept worrying about it, you couldn't get past it, you couldn't sleep, and there was nervousness in how you're going to approach it. In that moment of those feelings, and you're trying to avoid the situation at all costs. You're at level one of the motivation and the emotions that are associated with it fear, anxiety, self-doubt, low trust and you're just totally not encouraged to have that conversation because of the fear, the assumptions, because of that gale being present. And that's at level one, and a typical thought when a person might be feeling level one is why do I have to be the bigger person in this situation when he or she is the one that's at fault? Something like that.

Speaker 1:

The motivation is low because you carry in a little bit of self-pity on yourselves, and all of that really starts to describe how our low motivation, or no motivation, really shows up and we don't really take action. And, more importantly, at this level, you basically are trying to avoid any type of dynamics because there's no motivation there or it's very low. So, at level two, though, of the seven levels of motivation, it represents low motivation. So you went from having absolutely no motivation very little to level two, where there's a little little motivation. So what does that actually mean? Well, in this situation, having these conversations, you become more resentful because anger, frustration, annoyance and stress is highly present At this. At this point, the person is typically blaming others. It's not my fault, it's their fault. And because it's their fault it just has you pissed off, right? And if the person decides to have the conversation, they must win the argument. It's so.

Speaker 1:

Level two of motivation is about conflict. It's about I got to win this argument. So you went from avoiding it at level one to level two, where now it's more about conflict, it's more about I got to get to win. It's more about I'm going to win this conversation. It's my way, or the highway. It's a more aggressive, angered approach and you have to win, you have to fight through it.

Speaker 1:

The motivation is conflict and it's in existence in that moment, as you're approaching. Whatever that dynamic is, you have to win, so you may even force yourself to become motivated to do something. But there's there's calabatic energy present there, right? Because the anger, the frustration, right, that falls under calabatic energy. Because when you're talking about conflict and always showing up to need to prove your point, fight for us, right, it just becomes draining and, as I defined earlier, draining type energy is calabatic. It is so you're really motivated at level two. It's low energy, it's very low energy, but it's motivated by conflict that I have to win. I have to win this argument, I have to make sure that my point gets across, but over time, always showing up that you have to prove yourselves and always have to win the argument, and the fight is just draining all day, every day. So there's high calabatic energy that's present. A person that's experiencing this high calabatic anger type energy that constantly feels like a dark cloud over you and is just draining you. You're experiencing that level two type motivation and level two is really high on resentment, conflict and those type of things. Right, so that's level two. So then, as we move to level three though level three is average motivation, right. So now at level three, the person starts to take ownership in making sure to proceed. Difficult conversation, because that's where we're going to focus on this difficult conversations. So at this level, from a motivation standpoint, I have to have a difficult conversation. They make sure that the perceived difficult conversation that happened.

Speaker 1:

The objective is to create cooperation, rationalization, justification and just tolerance. The goal is to try to move to a positive state, because you start to examine your attitude towards the situation. That's the piece where you're taking more ownership of what you have control over. That's level three. And level three of the motivation it's an average motivation, because you're really starting to move from an angry state to take it more control on your own internal thoughts and how you're going to move forward and resolve the situation. You're starting to take all negativity. As you see it, you know what. I'm just going to move forward. Let's just move forward. I'm not going to worry about the negativity around this. I'm not worried about who's going to win the argument. Let's just get to the point of what needs to be done. So level three of motivation is about cooperation.

Speaker 1:

The focus is on how can we cooperate and start to move forward. There's motivation to engage with their superiors, with their staff, because they see that differences are present and they'll rather just try to get to a positive place. They may be thinking you know what? I'm not going to disagree because it's not going to get us anywhere. My focus is on trying to move us forward. Think about it. So level two was like low motivation and it's influenced by conflict. So level three is you're saying to yourself you know what, I'm not even going to drain my energy on this thing, I'm going to just focus on moving us forward. And that's level three and that's how you're taking more ownership and moving forward.

Speaker 1:

So the next thing, the next level, level four. Level four is that average to medium motivation, and I'm still looking at maybe having difficult conversations or managing upward dynamics. What does a level four motivation looks like? Well, that level four, the conversations. The perception of difficult conversations is really starting to melt away because you're becoming more compassionate and concerned about how you're going to manage this dynamic of the conversation, of these upper management relationships. That's important to you and you see that. And you're compassionate about being very supportive to whatever the viewpoint is. You feel that there's a great opportunity to overcome this difficult conversation and you're really starting to feel that the difficulty of the conversation doesn't really exist because you care about the situation. You're showing up to be the problem solver. Fixing the issue and initiating conversations is very important. So that looks like we're at level one of motivation. A person is avoiding the conversation because of the self-pity that they may carry on themselves and high judgment is present. That's limiting them from having these conversations At level two.

Speaker 1:

It's low motivation and it's about conflict, and that conflict leads to you trying to win the argument. Level three of motivation is really about not being sucked in, fighting to get a win in the conversation, but more so trying to rationalize and be cooperative and moving things to a positive state. We're at level four. It's about how are you going to solve it, how are you going to fix it, how are you going to show up to be supportive? And so when you're coming from that space which is antibiotic level three of motivation and level four antibiotic energy is present and you're showing up from a supportive state and think about how you normally show up to support people, it naturally feels good, your motivation is up. So that's why, at level four, I characterize it as a supportive, still being where you're showing up to try to resolve the dynamic issues, and that's what level four of motivation looks like.

Speaker 1:

Next there's level five. Level five is medium motivation and this is antibiotic energy as well. So the more antibiotic energy that's present which means no gales are present when you're experiencing level five. They may be present, but they're very little because of that mid level of motivation that you're experiencing at level five. Well, level five is the perception that difficult conversations doesn't exist, because opportunities to learn exist everywhere the leader is or the person is motivated to address upper dynamic issues.

Speaker 1:

Difficult conversations because there's no judgment of right or wrong, good and bad. It just doesn't exist in those moments and so what exists is growth opportunities. So they looking at situations and dynamics as an opportunity to grow and learn of that situation. So the concept of difficult conversations really don't exist, because there's no avoidance, because they see this as an opportunity to learn, educate, teach, be teachable. There's typically a sense of inner peace and calmness as they approach the issue. The person considers all points of views and that everyone wins.

Speaker 1:

And one thought might be this is my opportunity to seek understanding of what's happening in this situation. That's a level five motivation and it's totally different from what a level one is right. You're approaching it in a sense of seeking understanding, which is extremely important, and when they're vibrating at this level of motivation, difficult conversations don't exist. They don't. It's opportunities for advancement and growth and you're coming from a very optimistic viewpoint of the situation.

Speaker 1:

So let's look at level six. Level six of motivation is characterized as that medium to very high motivation. And so what does that look like? In that level six, the person starts to feel very connected to the situation and is fearless in their approach. Think about that. And now you're moving from avoiding this situation, having this conflict around the situation, to a state at level six you feeling connected to the situation, you feel that there's no fear is present, your motivation is high. It's high because your intuitiveness to address situations is with confidence, poise, and you have this deep ability to connect in the situation.

Speaker 1:

So think about that. Think about certain conversations and how highly motivated you were going into it and your get was telling you you know what. It's going to be all right, it's going to be good, we're moving forward. And that's because judgment is in, present. You can lean on your wisdom, because when you're able to lean on your wisdom, you're being present. You're being present to listen to what your intuition is telling you. Right, and when you're present and have that ability to listen to what your intuition is saying, judgment isn't there, the girls are not there, and because they're not there, you just start to naturally feel better. And when you feel better, you're more confident and in those moments of confidence you're very influential and positive and the conversations start to flow effortlessly and it motivates collaboration.

Speaker 1:

Connect that's level six. Right, and think about opportunities that you maybe you have certain meaning and you really connected with a person and the synergy was high. You were in this flow, you were it was like bliss of how things were sinking together when you walked out of that meaning very encouraged that something was going to happen. In those moments, right In that moment, you're highly motivated. You're motivated and that's that level six of motivation of what I'm talking about. It's a different state from when you're avoiding a conversation. It's a different state from when you have to win the conversation. It's a different state in that you're just trying to get through the conversation to a positive outcome. But level six is like, yeah, I'm feeling this person, yeah, I think this is going to really work out. I have this good feeling about what we discussed and how we're going to resolve this issue. Yeah, this feels good. That's level six motivation. And guess what, when you're vibrating at that level of motivation, you're more likely to take action and move forward. And finally, let's look at level seven. Level seven of motivation is extremely high. This is the top of the top.

Speaker 1:

This is where non-judgment exists. The person is fully present, with high empathic listening skills. You're listening and you can see what's not being said. That's how present you are. You are consciously aware that you understand how to tap into the other levels of motivation at will, because you're present with understanding to tap into the other levels of motivation. That's what that means. You're highly motivated to resolve, perceive difficult conversations that may exist. You're being very proactive in how you're going to step in and navigate it, because fear doesn't exist, judgment doesn't exist. You're present and there's a passion, and not a passion to have the conversation, but a passion exists that highly keeps you motivated and just moving forward. You can see the bigger picture of why it's important to resolve whatever dynamic situation that exists and one thought might sound like it's understandable that this person will be discouraged by the situation. What can we do, or what can I do, to help us move forward in this dynamic? You see, it's like a calm approach. There's no worry present. Your focal point is to move us forward, to get to a better place.

Speaker 1:

Just to recap, level one is no motivation to very low. There's the blaming of yourself. You feel victimized, you feel hopeless, you feel drained, overwhelmed. A lot of calabatic energy is present. Level two is low motivation, but it's motivated by conflict. So you're showing up to get a win and sometimes to get that win you've got to fight to get that win and fighting to get that win over time does start to become draining. Level three is about taking responsibility and motivating yourself, getting out of that space of the calabatic energy and moving into a more productive, positive space and just really trying to rationalize of how we're going to move forward.

Speaker 1:

Level four is average motivation and it's about support. And you're showing up to support, you're motivated to support. Level five is mid level of motivation and you're showing up to see opportunities from all angles. You're trying to create win-wins. Level six is that mid to high level of motivation, remember, and that's about intuition, that's about being present, that's about understanding what's not being said and being able to rely on your gut feeling, your intuition to move you forward. Level seven is the high and that's where no judgment is present. No judgment, you're fearless and you're being able to show up very productive and vision the outcome of how, whatever that dynamic is and how it's going to be.

Speaker 1:

Those are the seven levels of motivation and one thing that I do to help leaders and really start to assess this. I do an assessment and it's called the Energy Leadership Index Assessment. That assessment helps people understand those seven levels of motivation and it ties to energy and I give leaders the opportunity to take that energy assessment. So if that's something that you're interested in learning more about, I encourage you to visit my website at morrisemabrycom. That's M-O-R-I-C-E-M-A-B-R-Ycom, and then there's a link that's called the VIP Energy Assessment. Just click on that link, schedule us a call to talk about how I can get you set up with that. But that assessment starts to evaluate your seven levels of energy and how you show up on a regular day and how you show up during stress, and it gives you a unique percentages of your energy and how you show up as a person day in and day out, during a regular day and during stress. So if that's something that any of you are interested in learning more information, please visit my website at morrisemabrycom and click the link VIP Energy Assessment Call and I will be happy to share more information with you. But for that, thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you and we'll talk soon.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining me in this episode of let's Think About it. Your time and attention are greatly appreciated. If you found value in today's discussion, I encourage you to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. Remember, the journey of self-improvement is ongoing and I'm here to support you every step of the way. Connect with me on social media for updates and insights. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook at CoachMoCoaching, or LinkedIn at MauriceMabry, or visit my website at MauriceMabrycom for exclusive content. Until next time, keep reflecting, keep growing and, most importantly, keep believing in yourself. Remember, the most effective way to do it is to do it Together. We're making incredible strides toward a better and more empowered you. So thank you, and I'll see you in our next episode.