Change is the only constant, but have you ever wondered what motivates people to struggle for change?
There is no doubt that humans strive hard to build a comfort zone, but the comfort zone makes life meaningless once it is achieved.
Seeking betterment by acquiring change is a universal feeling in humans, but not everyone can dare to challenge the comfort zone they built, and at the end of the day, they accept mediocrity as their fate.
But, to struggle for change is a derive in people, and some build an empire out of it, while others ignore it till it is dead. Thus, motivation for change is multifaceted, and many factors contribute to it.
7 Factors To Find Out What Motivate People to Struggle for Change
Behavioral psychology emphasizes that not all humans have the same factors as their motivators.
Personalized experiences, emotional ability, and the environment in which they were brought up influenced how they tackle situations, but given below are the factors that influenced humans alike:
- Fear
An innate feeling that helps people to motivate for change is fear. An observational study by Professor Shirley Damrosch, PhD at the University of Maryland, found that fear helps induce change in people.
However, experts believe that abnormally high fear pushes people into denial. Thus, controlled fear yields change in people, which is a satisfactory motivator for encouraging people to enhance their quality of life.
Fear induced by the supportive motivation of self-efficiency motivates people to change their behavior. As fear alarms the situation’s urgency, and self-confidence urges to witness positive feedback helps people change their behavior.
- Desire and Dreams
There’s a common notion that desires and dreams are part of human instinct, and you can second this opinion as you must have desires and dreams to chase. However, having no dreams and wishes is quite abnormal, and that person might be battling with depression.
Dreams are why you left your cozy comforter in winter. However, the negative impact of desires and dreams could be drastic if you don’t set the right strategy.
Unrealistic dreams and expectations set you back, and you will start procrastinating. Big dreams cause you to think big, but your lethargy worsens things.
To combat this problem and to motivate yourself for a change, try to set realistic goals and break them down into shorter steps. Respect your deadlines, and reward yourself to keep the morale high. The sense of achievement will drive you to maintain your pace in the right direction.
A pro tip for you is that daydreaming helps to kick-start your journey for change. You can imagine the betterment in your life by exercising the change; thus, it enables you to strive hard for your goal.
- Self Determination
Ponder what motivates people to struggle for change, and you’ll realize self-determination has a key role to play. According to the self-determination theory of psychology, people tend to change their behavior when they see the potential for self-independence, competence, and relatedness.
- Self Independence
There’s no greater joy in a human’s life than mastering control of self. The mental, emotional, or financial slavery compromises the quality of life, and the sense of autonomy makes you the master of yourself. People tend to strive hard to change for good to achieve this euphoria.
- Competence
When a human sees the potential for betterment by acquiring a particular change in his behavior, he ensures to achieve it. Competence is the first step towards the destination, i.e., autonomy.
If acquiring a skill promises betterment in professional or personal life, a human being is more likely to achieve it.
- Relatedness
The feeling of belonging to your clan and attachment to your people usually motivates people to struggle to change. They prioritize actions that bring them close to their choice of people or offer them a sense of identity.
- Avoiding Stagnation
Stagnation or not coming out of your comfort zone doesn’t make your life comfortable. Usually, people confuse ”taking a break” with ” Stagnation” and don’t move forward again.
You start confusing ”contentment” with ” laziness”, and the idea of betterment doesn’t make you joyous but tickles your anxiety. The unease of newness leads you to not try at all, which is precisely where deterioration starts.
Thus, intelligent people continue to hustle for change to avoid Stagnation, and for that, they bound themselves to deadlines and continue evaluating their progress chart. Otherwise, they would lag, and progress would go back to zero.
- Meaningfulness
Change is difficult to achieve, but it’s essential to have it. Perseverance and a sense of meaning are influencing factors that contribute to people’s lives to gain meaning. When you acquire a sense of meaning, you get your long-term goals.
It doesn’t feel like roaming around in labyrinths anymore. It doesn’t only help people navigate the direction but also helps them avoid wasting their energy on not-so-important factors.
But remember that ”meaningfulness” is entirely subjective; it’s not mandatory that what is meaningful to you should make sense to everyone. Let me quote global best-selling author Jay Shetty as an example.
He spent four summers in India practicing Buddhist monkhood practices, and later, he reverted to being the best author and podcast host and is now an acclaimed celebrity life coach. His journey might not make sense to you, but it matters the most to him.
6: Sense of purpose
A sense of purpose refers to someone who gives importance to their lives and being and realizes that they are in the world to accomplish a specific purpose. Thus, it encourages them to struggle and invest their efforts and not be scared of sacrificing something inferior for the greater good.
Multiple people seek out such purposes while looking for a reason to avoid pain and surpass specific unjustified desires. Numerous research studies have shown that people with a sense of purpose can identify the right pathways and take necessary actions to fulfill their purpose in life.
One significant way to motivate other people to find their own sense of purpose is to ask them open-ended questions about the different areas of their lives, such as their interests, what affects them the most, what they would want to change if they had the power, etc.
If you want to find out your life’s purpose, meditate to unleash your inner self or consult an expert.
7: Belief in a significant cause
People who strongly believe in some cause are powerful forces behind them, forcing them to struggle for change.
This belief in a human can be developed for any reason, such as witnessing something with their loved ones, observing the significant deterioration of a particular segment of society, etc.
This can convince them to effect change on a larger scale through social movements, usage of multiple mediums, etc.
End Note
There could be many reasons or factors behind people’s motivation to struggle for change. Due to our unique experiences and individuality, we view things differently and take the influence of external factors like punishment and reward differently.
The same is why we have formed this guide talking about what motivates people to struggle for change?
Internal motivation could be regarded as the core source behind people’s will to change, but external motivational sources with an appropriate environment could be helpful too to bring a change.
About Tommy Turner:
Entrepreneur and author Tommy Turner brings over three decades of experience inspiring others through his journey in the piano industry, online marketing, stock trading, and motivational writing.
For more about Tommy’s journey and work, visit the about page, drop a line on the contact page or leave a comment in the comments section. Check out Tommy’s books!
